Overview
- At a Los Angeles book event with Pod Save America hosts, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Israel is "sort of an apartheid state" and argued the U.S. may have no choice but to reconsider military assistance.
- He suggested Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu influenced President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iran, a claim Netanyahu has rejected; Trump said he might have forced Israel’s hand, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio cited a preemptive rationale.
- Newsom criticized Netanyahu’s legal and political troubles and pointed to hard‑liners in his coalition who advocate West Bank annexation.
- He alleged "grift and corruption" tied to Trump’s "Board of Peace," naming the Witkoff family, Jared Kushner, and Donald Trump Jr. as beneficiaries.
- The remarks, coming during ongoing U.S.-Israeli operations against Iran, were widely covered as a significant escalation in Newsom’s stance with potential implications for the Democratic Party’s 2028 landscape.