In a moment that stunned observers across the political spectrum, California Governor Gavin Newsom, one of President Donald Trump’s most vocal and theatrical critics, stood before reporters in San Francisco and did something almost nobody expected: he praised the president. Specifically, Newsom heaped enthusiastic praise on Trump Accounts, the administration’s signature child savings initiative, calling it “one of the best things” Trump has done.
The remarks came Friday during a press conference where Newsom was promoting CalKIDS, California’s own state-level children’s savings program, which recently hit a milestone of one million enrolled children. Reporters pressed Newsom on the federal Trump Accounts program, and rather than dodge the question or use it as an opportunity to attack the president, as he has done on nearly every other issue for years, Newsom leaned in.
“I’m enthusiastic about encouraging people to get a Trump Account,” Newsom said. “I think it’s incredibly important. It’s one of the best things he’s done.” For a governor who has built much of his national political brand on opposition to Trump, even reportedly comparing him to Hitler in past remarks, the comment landed like a bombshell.
Trump Accounts are tax-advantaged investment accounts created under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Trump signed into law roughly a year before the accounts officially launched on the Fourth of July. Every American citizen under the age of 18 is eligible to begin saving through the program. For children born during Trump’s second term, a window running from 2025 through 2028, the federal government kicks in a $1,000 seed investment to jump-start their savings.
The program allows parents, grandparents, and other family members to contribute additional funds over time, with the beneficiary gaining access to the money only after turning 18. It is designed to give an entire generation of young Americans a financial head start, encouraging a culture of saving and investment rather than dependency on government programs later in life.
Newsom did not stop at praising the mechanics of the program. He specifically credited Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, along with Democrat Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, for their work getting the initiative off the ground, an unusually generous nod to a Republican lawmaker from a Democrat governor widely believed to be eyeing a 2028 presidential run.
“It’s direct, it’s tangible, it’s results-oriented; it’s not lost in bureaucracy,” Newsom said of the program. “You can see it, taste it, feel it; you’re making a difference directly in the next generation; you’re giving them hope.” Those words could easily have come from a Republican talking point sheet, and the irony was not lost on political observers watching the moment unfold.
Newsom went further still, praising First Lady Melania Trump’s “Fostering the Future” initiative, a companion effort designed to close a gap in the original Trump Accounts program for children in foster care. Under the original eligibility rules, custodial requirements around guardianship left many foster children at risk of falling through the cracks. Mrs. Trump’s initiative was designed specifically to address that shortfall.
“Melania Trump deserves a lot of credit because this was one of the gaps with the Trump Accounts,” Newsom said, explaining that foster children often lack the legal custodial relationships required to qualify under the standard rules. His willingness to single out the First Lady for praise added another layer of surprise to an already remarkable press conference.
Newsom also revealed the somewhat embarrassing origin story of California’s participation in the federal program. He said he only learned about Trump Accounts after former Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, a Republican, personally called him and asked why California was not participating. “I said, ‘I didn’t know about this, governor,'” Newsom admitted, a rare moment of candor about his own administration being caught flat-footed by a Trump-era policy that turned out to be broadly popular.
The scale of the program’s success may explain why Newsom felt compelled to break with his usual anti-Trump messaging. According to Fox News, registration numbers for Trump Accounts have already surpassed seven million children nationwide, a remarkably fast adoption rate for a brand-new federal savings program. Numbers like that are difficult for any politician, even one as combative toward Trump as Newsom, to simply ignore or dismiss.
The program has also attracted enormous private philanthropic support. Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell and his wife Susan reportedly pledged more than six billion dollars in additional contributions to the accounts, according to Americans for Tax Reform. Additional funding has poured in from states and major corporations eager to associate themselves with a program that enjoys broad, cross-partisan popularity among American families.
That popularity appears to be exactly why Newsom, a man widely seen as positioning himself for a possible 2028 presidential bid, chose to embrace the program rather than fight it. Affordability has emerged as one of the defining political issues heading into the next presidential cycle, and a governor hoping to appeal to working and middle-class families cannot easily afford to be seen standing against a program that puts real money directly into their children’s futures.
Newsom’s remarks stood in stark contrast to years of scorched-earth rhetoric aimed at the president. He has used state resources to run advertising campaigns attacking Trump, sparred with the administration over immigration enforcement, and positioned California as the epicenter of resistance to nearly every major Trump policy initiative. Friday’s press conference broke sharply from that pattern.
Reaction to the moment was swift on social media, with one pro-Trump account simply asking, “Did something happen to Newsom?” The question captured the disbelief many observers felt watching one of the president’s fiercest Democrat critics offer him unprompted praise on camera.
Conservative commentators were quick to note the significance of the moment. When even a governor who has spent years attacking Trump at every turn is forced to admit that one of his signature policies is working and popular with families, it becomes far harder for the rest of the Democrat Party to maintain the fiction that nothing the administration does could possibly benefit ordinary Americans.
