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Newsom Touts Trump Accounts for California Families 😲

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat and one of President Donald Trump's most persistent critics, on Friday urged California families to claim the federal $1,000 seed deposits available through Trump Accounts.

 

He called the newborn investment program one of the "really outstanding things this administration has done" at a San Francisco news conference marking 1 million claimed accounts in California's own child savings program.

Trump Accounts, created under Section 70204 of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, provide a $1,000 federal contribution to a tax-advantaged investment account for every U.S. citizen child born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2028.

Parents, relatives, and employers can contribute, subject to a combined annual limit of $5,000, with the funds invested in low-cost stock index funds until the child turns 18.

Newsom appeared alongside his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, San Francisco Treasurer Jose Cisneros, and venture capitalist Brad Gerstner, whose nonprofit, Invest America, helped design the accounts.

The governor told reporters the program deserved bipartisan credit and urged Californians to enroll regardless of party loyalty, according to the New York Post, singling out Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Cory Booker, D-N.J., for promoting the initiative.

 

The comments contrasted with Newsom's running feud with the White House. His office has logged more than 40 lawsuits against the Trump administration and has spent recent weeks trading barbs over immigration enforcement in San Francisco.

Private money has flowed into the program.

Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell and his wife, Susan, committed $6.25 billion to fund $250 charitable deposits for up to 25 million children age 10 or younger in ZIP codes with median annual incomes below $150,000.

The semiconductor manufacturer Micron pledged $250 million, including community deposits for children in Sacramento and Santa Clara counties and a dollar-for-dollar employee match.

In February, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie announced a $3.5 million anonymous gift to add $500 per baby born in the city this year.

Gerstner said Treasury plans to begin automatic account creation in October, ending the requirement that parents apply first.

Federal projections cited in state reporting estimate a single $1,000 deposit could grow to roughly $243,000 by age 55 with no further contributions.

Newsom paired his pitch for the federal program with CalKIDS, the California Kids Investment and Development Savings Program.

The program, which the state launched in 2022, automatically deposits $100 for every California newborn and up to $1,500 for low-income public school students.

His office said 1 million CalKIDS accounts have been claimed, with many more still unclaimed statewide.

The governor closed with a jab at branding, joking that had California called its own program "Newsom Accounts," it too would have drawn political attention.

Jim Thomas ✉

Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.

© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Trump's Sendoff for Karoline Leavitt Turned Into a Surprisingly Touching Moment

Friday's trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, must have been a bittersweet one for President Trump. He was there to throw his full weight behind Sen. Darline Graham Nordine (R-SC) and help push her across the finish line in Tuesday's Senate primary.

But, it was also the last trip White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt would be taking with him before she leaves to spend more time with her young family. Stick a pin in that topic, we'll get back to it in a minute.

As RedState reported Friday evening, the president took to the stage in Myrtle Beach to hype up his candidate and sound the warning about what will happen if the Democrats retake the House or Senate – or both.

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READ MORE: Trump Sounds the Alarm in South Carolina: 'You're Gonna Lose Everything We've Done'

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Before he concluded, he called Leavitt up to the podium one last time.

“I also want to express our thanks to a wonderful woman here tonight who has done an unbelievable job. It's so sad. You know, you meet people and you love people, but her name is Karoline, and she's our press secretary, and she just had a baby.

“And I just learned she loves the baby more than she loves Donald Trump, and I'm very angry with her.

“Where is Karoline? She's fantastic. You haven't heard the last of her. She'll be working for us outside, but she's going to spend a little time with those two beautiful babies, right?

“Thank you, Karoline. What a job.”

When she took the stage, Leavitt quipped about feeling at home behind a podium and told the president "it has been the honor of my life to serve as your White House press secretary."

Before departing for South Carolina, President Trump had some fun with the press on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews, teasing them about the number of applications he's been getting for the open role of press secretary.

President Trump said Friday he’s never seen so many job applications in his life in response to the opening created by Karoline Leavitt’s decision to leave her post as White House press secretary.

Asked by reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland

 

 

about whom he was considering to replace Leavitt, Trump declined to give a name but signaled the choice could be difficult.

And while we don't know who will replace Karoline Leavitt, we do have a little more information on how she will continue to serve the president. It turns out that, in addition to the extra time with her little ones, she will be returning to her job at MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump political action committee.

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SEE ALSO: Biden’s Former Press Secretary Calls Karoline Leavitt a Liar—Then Gets Hit With a Brutal Fact Check

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Karoline Leavitt may be stepping away from the briefing-room podium, but her legions of fans will be happy to know that she's not completely stepping away from Trump World.

 

Funny What Happens When You Actually Go After the Drug Cartels

The White House is out Friday morning with a blockbuster statistic that proves good things happen when you seal the border and declare war on drug cartels. 

And that number may just stop you in your tracks: More than 10,000 fewer Americans died from synthetic opioid overdoses in 2025 than the year before (under Biden).

According to new numbers from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) being highlighted by the Trump White House – it's National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day – deaths from synthetic opioids, which includes fentanyl, plunged 22 percent, down from 48,913 in 2024 (Biden) to 38,084 in 2025 (Trump). 

There's even more good news: drug overdose deaths overall also fell sharply, dropping 14 percent from 81,313 to 69,973.

To put it in practical terms, thousands of sons, daughters, husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and friends are alive today because narcoterrorists targeting American communities have been put on notice by the Trump administration.

Trump administration officials say their aggressive war on fentanyl and the cartels moving deadly drugs into the United States is yielding impressive results.

White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis commented:

"President [Donald] Trump targeted cartels who were profiting off the death of Americans, secured our border to stop Fentanyl and other illicit drugs from flowing into our communities, and jumpstarted ICE to arrest illegal alien fentanyl traffickers."

"These policies delivered a 22% decline in opioid deaths in a single year. Thanks to President Trump, America is finally winning the fight against fentanyl," she added.

Another point being highlighted hints at changes happening further up the fentanyl trafficking chain – testing by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) found that just 29 percent of seized fentanyl pills contained a potentially lethal dose, down dramatically from 76 percent two years earlier.

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SEE ALSO: 'We Will Not Rest': New Cartel Boss Faces $25 Million Bounty As Trump Admin Unseals Criminal Charges

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This isn't just happenstance, it's the result of sustained efforts by the Trump administration in the war to combat the drug cartels and choke off the supply of deadly drugs before they ever reach American communities.

Since President Trump has returned to office, he has locked down the southern border, unleashed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was illegal alien drug traffickers inside the country, and designated drug cartels as terrorist organizations. 

He even designated illicit fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.

The Trump administration's approach seems to be working because they're attacking the opioid problem on several fronts in a multifaceted approach and not just doing random strikes here and there. They're going after the border, the traffickers, the cartels – and where it really hurts them the most, their money – their transportation networks, and the drugs themselves.

These kinds of numbers show that pressuring the bad guys is having the desired effect. And when the bad guys realize that trafficking poison into the United States could cost them their money, their freedom, or even their lives, they probably start wondering if it's worth the risk.

 

WSJ Columnist Breaks Down Alaska's Shambolic Way of Electing People

We knew it was trash from the start. Ranked choice voting, a top-four primary, and benchmarks to get on the ballot that are so low, you’d think it’s a prank. That’s Alaska, and it could cause issues for incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, who has a man with the same name running, and both men have advanced to the next round of this circus. The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel 

 

has called this whole process a “travesty,” and broke down this a**-backward way of electing people:

Alaska conducts elections in two stages under completely different rules. First, all candidates, regardless of party, face off in a primary, in which each voter casts a single vote. The top four finishers advance to the general election, in which voters can rank all four and their votes shift in multiple rounds of counting in which the bottom finisher is eliminated and his votes reassigned.

 

As with Alaska’s past races under this system, which began in 2022, there was the usual insane complexity: 17 candidates for governor, 16 for the U.S. Senate, 15 for the state’s lone House seat. This is in part a function of Alaska’s silly filing requirements, the loosest in the country. Anyone can run for office for a fee of $100—no need to gather petition signatures. That encourages frivolous candidacies in Alaska’s system, allowing attention seekers the guarantee of having their name listed next to prominent people—and free media.

Alaska’s House contest featured, again, Eric Hafner,

 

who is serving a federal prison term in New York after pleading guilty in connection with a string of threats against government officials. He made the final ballot in 2024, and may do so this year, too. The Senate race featured his mother, Carol Hafner, and Green candidate Richard Grayson—neither of whom lives in the state. Of more than 30 candidates running for the Senate and House, few outside the incumbents or the main Democratic challenger even tried to raise money. Mr. Grayson recently explained that he was running “for fun,” that he actually supports Democrat Mary Peltola, and that if he makes the final four, he’ll quit. This is the contempt RCV encourages candidates to show Alaska voters.

At least the felon and the out-of-staters weren’t deceiving voters. The Senate race featured the last-minute entry of a retired elementary school teacher with a history of supporting Democrats, including Mrs. Peltola. He happens to be named Daniel Sullivan

 

—the same name as the Republican incumbent—and filed, just before the deadline, to run as a Republican. The decoy insists he isn’t trying to confuse voters, and isn’t working with Mrs. Peltola or her supporters. Yet his filing documents were handled by an Anchorage Democratic consultant, and his campaign logo is a near replica of Sen. Sullivan’s.

Doppelgangers have run in other elections but, again, Alaska’s system dramatically increases the spoiler potential. In a jungle primary teeming with candidates, voters struggle to focus on individuals or disputes. Every name is dropped on one big ballot. The Sullivans were adjacent this year, with the decoy candidate listed first. How many Alaskans ticked the first box, unaware they were voting for someone other than whom they intended?

With 80% of the vote counted, Mrs. Peltola has 64,000 votes and Sen. Sullivan has 57,000. No. 3? Decoy Dan, with 3,200 votes, who didn’t campaign and has only 12 donors (not including himself). Alaskans will be even more confused when they have to “rank” the two Dans in November.

What the hell is even this system? Many have said it before, and they should keep saying it. Anyone can get on the ballot for $100, and you see the unseriousness of it all in the House race. 

Nuke this method from orbit. 

 

Things Are Not Going Well With Florida Dems Right Now

Angie Nixon had a great primary night on Tuesday. She raised very little in the grand scheme of things and took down favorite Alex Vindman, who had millions in the war chest. Nixon, a state representative and democratic socialist, is known for her meltdown on the state house floor over the new maps and for her arrest after staging a shoddy sit-in at Gov. DeSantis’ office.

 

She walloped Vindman 56 to 44. 

Yet she’s now facing some institutional beefs, including with Florida Democrat Party Chair Nikki Fried.

 

 The two had a phone call this week, described as shambolic. There are conflicting reports: one account says both women got into a proverbial catfight over the phone, while another claims Nixon yelled at Fried. The point is that Nixon cannot run a hard-left campaign, not in Florida, which has supplanted Texas as the king of red states. It’s also something of an open secret that Nixon and Fried aren’t friendly at all, and that the latter is irritated that the former beat Vindman. Nixon appears more than aware of the circumstances, so Florida Democrats are not in a good place right now (via Axios):

According to two people who spoke with Nixon, both she and Fried yelled at each other over the course of the call. Another person who spoke to Fried said the chair did not yell but was yelled at.

"Nikki wants her to back away from DSA, from socialism," said one person who spoke with Nixon. "She's listening to other people saying that they're afraid, they're scared — the Jewish members and the Hispanic caucus. But to Angie, Nikki doesn't want Angie to be who Angie is. Angie has already done the backing-away."

On the call, Nixon told Fried, "You never gave a care about me from the beginning, and now you're telling me how to run my campaign?" according to the source.

At one point, the source said, Nixon yelled, "stop gaslighting me!"

The other side: A Florida Democratic Party official disputed that Fried yelled at Nixon.

The official also said that the state party tried multiple times to contact Nixon's team about the coordinated campaign, but often haven't had their calls returned.

But, the person added, Nixon's field team did participate in a call with the party's coordinated campaign this week.

[…]

Between the lines: A second person who talked to Nixon described the feud as "a clash of ideology — but it's also a clash of personalities."

 

"Nikki needs to be careful," the person added. "She can't afford to be seen by black voters disrespecting a black woman."

Another Florida Democratic official with knowledge of the dispute said Nixon and Fried have never been friendly and that Fried "was very disappointed that Angie won. She made that pretty well known."

Before the election, the source said, Fried was predicting Nixon would lose and was "calling around telling people, 'Hey, can you make sure when he wins that Angie is nice and welcoming and does all the things to bring everybody together?'"

"I know Nikki doesn't like it, but Angie is the engine right now. Angie is the national story, and Nikki just can't stand it."

The ironic part about the Axios story is that Nixon apparently has had better relations with David Jolly, the ex-Republican congressman who is now the Democratic gubernatorial candidate and has rejected socialist overtures. We’ll see how long that lasts, because Nixon will soon be ready to be around, and she’ll want to cling to anything to boost her chances. 

This state could’ve had a competitive race, but Democrats decided to be morons again, and now both statewide races are likely to be GOP sweeps. 

Well, that’s life. 

 

Calif.: San Francisco Dems move to break with state party to oppose 'Billionaire Tax'

In a move signaling a deepening ideological rift within Northern California’s political establishment, leaders of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee (DCCC) are preparing to formally oppose Proposition 40, breaking ranks with the California Democrat Party.

The statewide measure, known as the Billionaire Tax Act, was narrowly endorsed by the state party’s executive board following an intense debate, setting the stage for an unprecedented local rebellion in one of the nation’s most left-wing strongholds.

To clear the path for this rare divergence, the San Francisco DCCC quietly altered its local bylaws to allow the party committee to take an independent position on statewide ballot initiatives when the state party’s stance conflicts with local priorities.

While state party rules strictly forbid local chapters from endorsing alternative candidates, ballot measures reportedly fall into a procedural loophole, allowing San Francisco leaders to break from the broader party platform.

Proposition 40 would levy a one-time 5% wealth tax on the state’s roughly 200 billionaires, generating an estimated $100 billion primarily designated to backfill projected federal cuts to Medi-Cal, California’s healthcare program for low-income residents, non-citizens and illegal aliens.

Despite the measure’s strong backing from healthcare unions, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Representative Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), local party leaders in San Francisco have expressed deep skepticism over its economic ramifications.

 

San Francisco DCCC Chair Nancy Tung 

 

and prominent local “moderate” figures argue that the measure poses a severe threat to California’s fragile budget dynamics. Opponents warn that an aggressive targeted tax will accelerate an exodus of high-net-worth individuals and corporate headquarters out of San Francisco and the whole state, ultimately gutting broader income tax revenues.

In taking this stance, the local committee aligns itself with Democrat leaders who also oppose the proposition, including Governor Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.), gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra, Mayor Daniel Lurie and organizations like Planned Parenthood.

Meanwhile, the impending vote has notably drawn criticism from more far-left members inside the local committee, who argue that defecting from the state party “undermines Democrat unity” and “shields the ultra-wealthy from contributing to basic social safety nets.”

However, with more moderate members holding a majority on the committee, the local party is widely expected to vote against Proposition 40 ahead of the upcoming election.

Beyond the ideological issues, the potential break carries financial implications for local campaign operations. Aligning against the initiative positions the local party to receive substantial financial support from well-funded anti-tax committees, tech leaders and venture capitalists who are pouring tens of millions of dollars into defeating Proposition 40.

 

Sharpton's Defamation Accusation: A New Low in the Nolan Wells Tragedy

 

The latest twist in the Nolan Wells tragedy should make every patriot uneasy: attorneys for three of the young men who were with Wells have sent a 19‑page presuit demand alleging the Rev. Al Sharpton publicly smeared their clients and demanding an apology — not a publicity stunt. This is not tabloid fodder; it’s a formal legal warning asserting that repeated insinuations crossed the line into defamation and could have real consequences for reputations and lives.

The letter, directed at statements Sharpton made in July and August, names Morgan Seymour, Jax Pitalo and Warren Hudson and argues that his words implied felonious conduct like murder, evidence tampering and obstruction. The friends’ lawyers insist the trio never possessed or erased Nolan’s phone or keys and are demanding public retractions and deletions if those claims persist.

Sharpton, who has become a national microphone in this case, responded with bravado — saying he “welcomes” a lawsuit and even suggesting that being sued would let him depose the men under oath. That sort of theatrical, combative posture is exactly what drives division: it turns a grieving family’s private sorrow into a national spectacle and rewards the kind of performative outrage that sidelines facts.

 

Meanwhile the young men named in the letter say they’ve been swarmed by online harassment, death threats, doxxing and ruined reputations; their families have turned to crowd funding to pay for legal defense. If Americans value due process, we should be alarmed that social media mobs and celebrity denunciations can strip ordinary citizens of safety and presumption of innocence before any investigation concludes.

The investigatory facts remain muddled: autopsies and toxicology reports are pending, local authorities have deferred to a grand jury, and national activists have already poured in with condolences, rewards and eulogies — even while vital details remain unknown. Turning a raw tragedy into a political crusade accomplishes nothing for the truth; it only pressures prosecutors and fuels factionalism at a time when calm, careful fact‑finding is required.

Conservatives should be clear‑eyed about what’s happening: this is a case study in how well‑funded activists and national media figures can turbocharge a narrative, weaponize sympathy, and silence countervailing voices with mob pressure. We can support Nolan’s grieving parents without condoning a rush to judgment, and we must insist that high‑profile advocates who fan flames be held to the same standards of accountability as anyone else.

If Sharpton and other national actors crossed the line, the law exists for a reason — to restore reputations and to deter irresponsible, explosive accusations. Patriots who believe in fairness and equal justice should cheer the rule of law here: let depositions, evidence and courts — not hashtags and megaphones — determine what really happened.

 

Beware the Smile: Socialists' Quiet March Into Power

 

Rob Schmitt wasn’t being alarmist when he warned that a smiling new generation of Democratic Socialists is slipping into positions of power; he used his platform to call out how polished rhetoric can mask radical ends. Conservative viewers watching his segment saw a clear thread: young activists trade agitprop for charm, but the goals they cheer for are the same old collectivist blueprints that wreck nations. Schmitt’s critique is part of a broader conservative pushback that refuses to pretend these aren’t real threats to liberty.

The facts back up the panic: Democratic Socialists of America–aligned candidates swept key Democratic primaries in New York and scored big wins across several cities this cycle, turning safe liberal districts into launching pads for hard-left policy experiments. Those victories aren’t hypothetical; they translated into multiple primary upsets that threaten to push the national Democratic coalition further from the center. The electoral math shows this insurgency is organized, funded, and growing — not a fringe Twitter tantrum but a coordinated political project.

What worries conservatives isn’t that these activists are youthful or theatrical, it’s the content beneath the choreography: calls to abolish core institutions, defund law enforcement, and remake property and constitutional structures in ways that would hollow out individual rights and economic freedom. That agenda is not academic; it has been spelled out in platforms and embraced openly by a rising number of primary winners and their endorsers. Where previous generations hid the hard edge of collectivism, this crop wraps it in performative empathy and gaslights the public about consequences.

 

Mainstream media and establishment Democrats have been shockingly quick to normalize and, in some cases, celebrate these insurgents, treating radicalism as mere “change” rather than a repudiation of the constitutional order. Left-leaning outlets try to frame the surge as a generational shift, while the Washington elite frets about optics and coalition-building instead of confronting the dangerous ideas being mainstreamed. That collapse of serious scrutiny leaves the rest of the country to pick up the bill when ideological experiments fail — and they always do.

This moment calls for clarity, not pabulum. Conservatives should expose the record, press candidates about real-world consequences, and remind voters that charm and slogans don’t pay the bills or keep neighborhoods safe. The next few election cycles will decide whether America preserves its constitutional traditions or tolerates a smiling revolution that quietly erodes them; prudence demands we choose liberty and common sense over polished radicalism.

History offers grim lessons: every time democracy tolerated the cheerful mask of collectivism it paid with lost freedoms and shattered lives. We would be unworthy of our inheritance if we watched quietly while a movement that admires the methods of history’s worst regimes sneaks past the gate under the pretense of empathy. Now is the hour for honest naming, bold opposition, and a renewed commitment to the principles that made this country exceptional.

 

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