California’s split-screen governor: Newsom is whatever you want him to be | Opinion
Gavin Newsom is California’s split-screen governor, willing to be whoever you want him to be.
On one hand, he’s fighting against a billionaire tax in California. On the other, he’s telling voters nationally that we need a billionaire tax.
In other words, he’s full of it.
Newsom’s record of duplicity is long and unmistakable. He says he’ll uphold the death penalty, then won’t enforce it. He calls Trump a Nazi, then echoes him. He warns against indoor gatherings without masks, then dines maskless with lobbyists at one of the world’s finest restaurants.
And now he’s for and against a billionaire tax.
Here’s Newsom recently: “It’s time for a national billionaire’s tax and a new social contract.”
And here’s Newsom talking to Politico in January about the California measure: “The evidence is in. The impacts are very real… That’s not what we need right now, at a time of so much uncertainty. Quite the contrary.”
Same man, similar tax, different months.
Newsom fears a billionaire tax in California would upend the state budget by driving billionaires out of state, because they prop up the budget already. And he understands that a billionaire tax threatens California entrepreneurship and innovation.
But those concerns fall away when pitching an ongoing minimum tax on billionaires nationally.
How does Newsom explain such an absurd lack of conviction? Newsom says it’s about competition.
“We live in a competitive reality with 49 other states,” Newsom told Politico.
Newsom must have forgotten we’re competing with other nations as well. And when did he become so concerned with California’s tax competitiveness?
Just recently, Newsom argued the reason California needs to tax common software people use to save time and money is that it’s one of the states that doesn’t currently tax those services.
Newsom doesn’t care that California has one of the top corporate tax rates in the country. It also has one of the highest income tax rates, the highest sales tax rate, relatively high vehicle registration and documentation fees, the highest gas tax and the nation’s highest capital gains taxes. And so on.
He should consider a more compelling reason to oppose a billionaire tax: it is bad policy. The California measure forces billionaires to give a one-time tax of 5% of their wealth to the state and puts new billionaires in a bad position. You might ask “Who cares?”
“(A California) billionaire tax is an unrealized gains tax. A unicorn startup founder becomes a paper billionaire around $5 billion value,” Silicon Valley venture capitalist Garry Tan said on X.
“This will kill startups and innovation in California since a founder is illiquid while instantly on the hook for $100 million.”
California also doesn’t need the money. It’s enjoying record revenues to go along with record spending and the state hasn’t proven to be a good steward of money. You can’t use billionaires as a backstop for bad government.
And if billionaires leave California as a result of this punitive measure, the state risks losing $30 billion annually for a short-term influx of around $25 billion per year for a few years, according to my colleague at Pacific Research Institute, Wayne Winegarden.
Just think about the proposal itself: It would use a one time tax on a relatively small group of people to fund ongoing spending. This is a terrible budgeting idea.
But you don’t need to take my word for it. Just look at what has happened when billionaire taxes have passed. France, Sweden, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands all abandoned their billionaire taxes. Why? Because they didn’t generate enough income, were difficult to administer, they drove away billionaires and were bad for the economy.
As usual, Newsom wants to have it both ways. Governor Newsom is fighting the California version because it’s terrible policy, and he wants credit for opposing a tax, but Campaign Newsom also wants to be able to say he supports a tax because it’s far less likely he’d ever get Congress to agree on it. He supports a tax and opposes a tax. He’s whoever you want him to be. It’s similar to his support for single-payer health care while campaigning but his complete lack of action to implement it as governor.
Give him credit where it’s due: Newsom has been remarkably successful for someone with so many versions of himself. But voters should always wonder which version is talking.
Matt Fleming is an opinion writer living in Placer County. You can follow him on X @Flemingwords or connect via email: flemingwords@gmail.com.
This story was originally published July 15, 2026 at 5:00 AM with the headline "California’s split-screen governor: Newsom is whatever you want him to be | Opinion."