At Cop30, California Governor Newsom seizes spotlight and takes aim at Trump

With US President Donald Trump skipping the UN’s climate summit in the Amazon, California Governor Gavin Newsom grabbed the spotlight on Tuesday and unleashed a barrage of attacks on the fossil fuel agenda of his political nemesis.

The well-coiffed Democrat – seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate – blasted Trump for twice leaving the Paris climate accord and for “doubling down on stupid” through his support of Big Oil.

Newsom said a future Democratic administration would rejoin the Paris Agreement “without hesitation”.

“It’s a moral commitment, it’s an economic imperative,” Newsom said in response to a question in Belem, the Brazilian Amazon city in northern Para state hosting the climate summit known as Cop30.

It is “an abomination that he has twice, not once, pulled away from the accords”.