SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom delivers his final State of the State address to lawmakers Thursday in Sacramento, where he is expected to lay out his priorities for his last year in office as he eyes a run for president in 2028.
Newsom, a Democrat, is conscious of his legacy as he marches toward the conclusion of his eight-year run governing the nation's most populous state, a position that often put him directly at odds with Republican President Donald Trump.
Over the years he has used the State of the State to tout California's economic growth and technological innovation and defend the state against criticism of its high cost of living and largest homeless population in the country. He has jabbed at Trump and warned that his administration would threaten the state's progressive policies.
This year the speech comes a day after the state marked a year since thedevastating Los Angeles-area firesignited, ripping through neighborhoods and killing 31 people.
In the months since, Newsom has asked Congress and Trump forbillions of dollars in fundingto help the region recover from the blazes, some of the most destructive in state history. Trump has not answered that call — one of the many disputes between him and the governor during his first year back in the presidency.
The two have sparred over everything from Trump'sdeployment of National Guard troopsin L.A. to thefederal government's blockingof California's first-in-the-nationban on the sale of new gas-powered carsby 2035.
The state has sued the Trump administration more than 50 times, and Newsom has called Trump a threat to democracy, leading aredistricting fighttoimprove Democrats' chancesof winning control of the House in this year's midterm elections.
"I don't for a second trust him," Newsom said in a recent interview on MS NOW, adding that on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supportersstormed the U.S. Capitol, the president "tried to light democracy on fire."
It would be a surprise if Newsom does not mention Trump in his final State of the State ahead of a potential presidential run, said Christopher Witko, executive director of the University of California Center Sacramento, which trains students for careers in public policy.
"He's going to talk about Trump as a threat and probably how he's been standing up to him," Witko said. "It's going to be an audience of people in the state, but an audience of Democrats outside of the state too."
Newsom is also expected to talk about what he wants to get done in the rest of his second term. The governor has spent the past seven years trying to solve some of California's most relentless issues, including theimpacts of climate change, thestate's homelessness crisis, and itshigh gas and utility prices.
On Friday he is set to unveil his proposed budget for the next fiscal year afteryears facingbudget shortfalls.
This is the first time Newsom has delivered the State of the State to lawmakers in person since 2022. He has said he does not like formal speeches becausehis dyslexiamakes it difficult to read from a teleprompter in live time.
Instead he has submitted a written address to lawmakers in the years since, fulfilling a constitutional requirement that he report to the Legislature in some form.
He also tried other approaches that have departed from tradition, including posting aprerecorded speech onlineandtouring the stateto announce policies aimed at tackling homelessness and mental health crises.
Under the state constitution, Newsom is barred from seeking a third term.
