President Trump tore into Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday over a clean energy pact the California Democrat brokered with the United Kingdom, calling the arrangement "inappropriate" and warning the British government that partnering with Newsom would end badly.

Trump didn't mince words in comments to Politico.

"Gavin is a loser. Everything he's touched turns to garbage. His state has gone to hell, and his environmental work is a disaster."

The target of that assessment had just wrapped a European tour that took him from the Munich Security Conference to a signing ceremony in London, where he and British Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Ed Miliband inked a memorandum of understanding to deepen cooperation on climate change mitigation, including investments in offshore wind projects.

According to the Washington Examiner, Newsom also met with British clean technology firm Octopus Energy and announced nearly $1 billion in investment headed to California.

A governor playing diplomat

There's something clarifying about watching a state governor hopscotch across Europe, signing agreements with foreign governments. Newsom appeared at the Munich Security Conference alongside other rumored 2028 Democratic presidential contenders, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Then he jetted to London to cut deals with the British energy secretary.

The MOU opens Californian markets to British companies and creates cross-Atlantic collaboration between research institutions. Newsom framed it as proof of California's global standing.

"California is the best place in America to invest in a clean economy because we set clear goals and we deliver. California will continue showing the world how we can turn innovation and ambition into climate action."

That's a bold claim from the governor of a state hemorrhaging residents. Trump noted as much, saying "people are leaving" California because of Newsom and other Democrats. The governor prefers a different narrative: California as the world's "fourth- or fifth-largest economy, depending on the year," a colossus that can negotiate with sovereign nations on its own terms.

But economy size and quality of life are not the same metric. An economy can be enormous and still preside over rolling blackouts, skyrocketing energy costs, and an exodus of middle-class families who can no longer afford to live there.

The real issue: who conducts foreign policy?

Trump's sharpest criticism wasn't about climate policy. It was about propriety. He called it "inappropriate" for Newsom to enter such agreements and "inappropriate for [the U.K.] to be dealing with him."

"The worst thing that the U.K. can do is get involved in Gavin. If they did to the U.K. what he did to California, this will not be a very successful venture."

And then the trademark jab: "The U.K.'s got enough trouble without getting involved with Gavin Newscum."

The underlying question is constitutional, not just personal. Foreign policy is the domain of the federal government. When a governor signs memoranda of understanding with foreign powers, particularly on energy and climate policy that directly contradicts the sitting president's agenda, it raises a basic question about who speaks for the United States on the world stage.

Newsom knows this. The European tour wasn't really about offshore wind or research collaboration. It was about positioning. A governor with presidential ambitions is showing foreign audiences that there's another America, one that still genuflects at the altar of climate commitments the current administration has moved away from.

The Munich tell

Newsom's remarks at the Munich Security Conference made the subtext plain. During a panel, the governor offered this assessment of the geopolitical landscape:

"I believe Europe feels more united today than it has in some time. And perhaps maybe that is the one contribution of Donald Trump."

That's not the language of a governor focused on state governance. That's an audition. Newsom traveled to an international security conference to offer foreign leaders a winking critique of the sitting president and to reassure them that the progressive project is merely on pause.

He described Trump's political and policy repercussions as "temporary." The message to European leaders was unmistakable: wait us out.

The pattern is familiar

This is not the first time Democrat  officials have conducted shadow diplomacy to undercut a Republican president's foreign policy. The impulse is always the same: signal to the world that the real America agrees with Brussels and Davos, not with the voters who elected the current administration.

What makes Newsom's version distinctive is the brazenness. He isn't a senator sending back-channel letters. He's signing formal agreements with foreign governments and holding press conferences about them. The MOU may not carry the force of a treaty, but it carries a message: California considers itself a sovereign actor in international affairs when it finds the federal government inconvenient.

Investment or dependency?

The nearly $1 billion investment from Octopus Energy will be welcomed by Newsom's press team. But a conservative reading of that number asks different questions:

• How much of that investment depends on California subsidies, mandates, or ratepayer-funded incentives?
• Does offshore wind development address California's actual energy reliability problems, or does it layer more intermittent generation onto a grid that already struggles?
• Who bears the cost when these projects underperform or require massive maintenance expenditures down the line?

Newsom says California "sets clear goals" and "delivers." California's energy consumers, paying some of the highest electricity rates in the nation, might use a different verb.

What comes next

The MOU is signed. The photo ops are done. Newsom returns to Sacramento with international headlines and a fresh round of 2028 speculation. None of that fixes the grid, lowers energy prices, or stops the outmigration.

Trump framed the situation simply, and it's hard to argue with the logic: if Newsom's environmental track record in California is the product being exported, the U.K. should read the reviews before buying.