SAN FRANCISCO — California Gov. Gavin Newsom and fellow Sacramento Democrats are finding themselves in an awkward yet convenient alliance with MAGA-world figures against President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”
Just days after leaving the administration, Elon Musk took his opposition to the extreme over Trump’s mega budget and reconciliation package, posting on X Tuesday that he “just can’t stand it anymore” with what he called the “disgusting abomination” that is “this massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill.”
His outburst had Newsom, a frequent sparring partner, chiming in with agreement.
“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” the governor responded to Musk.
The vote of support from Newsom marks the latest turn in the rocky relationship between him and Musk, who enjoyed a favorable relationship with the governor while growing many of his companies within the state, but had become a regular target of criticism from the blue state leader during his time at the White House.
Musk’s post, meanwhile, encouraged Republican critics of the reconciliation package like Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to quickly echo his outrage as well.
But Newsom also found himself in agreement with conservative firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Tuesday over a particularly thorny provision of the bill: a 10-year ban on the enforcement of AI state regulation introduced by her fellow House Republicans.
The Georgia lawmaker threatened to vote against the bill if it returns to the House with the moratorium still included — presenting a potential headache for GOP leadership, who could barely scrounge up the votes the first time. The package is being considered in the Senate, where the measure may not survive scrutiny under the upper chamber’s Byrd rule, meant to strip out measures that have no impact or only a negligible one on the budget.
“I am adamantly OPPOSED to this and it is a violation of state rights and I would have voted NO if I had known this was in there,” Greene posted on X. “We have no idea what AI will be capable of in the next 10 years and giving it free rein and tying states hands is potentially dangerous.”
Newsom, who previously expressed fears about overregulating California’s booming AI industry, has said he is concerned the moratorium will be “overcorrecting in the other direction federally.”
Four Democrats from the California Legislature joined a letter to Congress from state lawmakers on Tuesday morning to oppose the moratorium on state AI laws, only to see their criticisms echoed by Greene hours later.
“Given the long absence of federal action to address privacy and social media harms, barring all state and local AI laws until Congress acts threatens to setback policymaking and undermine existing enforcement on these issues,” they wrote as part of a bipartisan coalition of 260 state lawmakers.
“We respectfully urge you to reject any provision that preempts state and local AI legislation in this year’s reconciliation package.”
