Trump Calls Gavin Newsom’s Clean Energy Deal With The U.k. ‘inappropriate’

President Donald Trump on Monday slammed a new clean energy agreement between California and the United Kingdom, deriding Gov. Gavin Newsom and warning British leaders against partnering with the Democratic governor.

“The U.K.’s got enough trouble without getting involved with Gavin Newscum,” Trump said in a brief interview with POLITICO, using his derogatory nickname for Newsom. “Gavin is a loser. Everything he’s touched turns to garbage. His state has gone to hell, and his environmental work is a disaster.”

Trump added that it was “inappropriate” for Newsom to strike such agreements and “inappropriate for them to be dealing with him.”

Trump’s remarks came shortly after Newsom signed a memorandum of understanding in London with U.K. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband pledging cooperation on clean energy technologies, including offshore wind. The agreement also aims to expand access for British firms, including Octopus Energy, to California’s market and to boost collaboration between research institutions on both sides of the Atlantic.

Newsom, a likely 2028 Democratic presidential contender, has been touring Europe in part to reassure U.S. allies that Trump’s shake-up of transatlantic relations and climate policy is “temporary.”

The Trump administration withdrew the United States from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change earlier this year, while California and the U.K. remain committed to pursuing net-zero emissions targets under the global treaty.

Trump, who has frequently mocked wind energy and taken aim at Newsom’s stewardship of the nation’s most populous state, warned that the deal would backfire for Britain.

“People are leaving,” Trump said of California. “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.”

He also criticized the governor for what he described as failed infrastructure projects, citing California’s long-delayed high-speed rail project. “How has he done with the railroad?” Trump said. “How has he done with the various things he’s building?”