California Governor Gavin Newsom rebuts Trump at Davos, calls tariffs "regressive tax"

During an interaction with news outlet Semafor's Ben Smith, Newsom pointed to private-sector performance and corporate activity while disputing Trump's assertions. Referring to a list of companies, he said, "On private sectors [performance], looking at the list, McKenzie, Microsoft, and a few Californic companies, so it's like what the hell are you talking about."

Addressing the international audience, he added, "For those who are not American, to let you know what's happening across my country, that's what's happening in the USA."

Criticising Trump's economic approach, Newsom said, "His economic policy is not complicated. It's the tariffs, which are a regressive tax, and mass deportation that is having a major impact on the supply chain."

Citing employment trends to strengthen his argument, Newsom said, "Worst job numbers in years in the first year of the Trump administration, 49,000 jobs a month. In Biden's administration, it was averaging 1,68,000 jobs a month."

He also spoke on inflation, saying, "Inflation is not lowering, still at 2.7% in the USA. Everything you heard yesterday was BS."

Newsom said tariff-driven measures were affecting key sectors and smaller enterprises. "It's impacted by these policies of tariffs that are impacting ranchers, farmers, small business owners," he said, while also alleging that the impact of tax cuts was uneven.

Commenting on distributional effects, Newsom said, "Tax cuts are away from the rich and wealthy, the burden is on the small business and working folks, that policy is being described as America's economic strategy."

Summing up his criticism, Newsom said, "It's a failed strategy, it's a strategy that is impacting all of the USA, including my state (California), which has been very disproportionately affected by these strategies. I'm against these strategies." (ANI)