Even Stephen A. Smith Is Roasting Gavin Newsom For His Embarrassing Davos Trip

Even Stephen A. Smith has had it with California Gov. Gavin Newsom's endless, desperate search for attention. 

Newsom has a long, prolific list of failures during his tenure in California. He was an authoritarian lockdown extremist, pushing pointless, harmful policies like school closures, mask mandates, and eventually vaccine mandates and passports. For the first time in state history, during his time in office, California lost population. His budget is a mess, consistently showing shortfalls despite huge tax rates. Then he presided over the failure of massive fires destroying two cities in Los Angeles. Cost of living has skyrocketed, billionaires have fled as his supermajority legislature pushes for a "wealth tax," and corporate headquarters have relocated, en masse.

In order to distract from this historically awful record, Newsom has gone on a trolling campaign with his incompetent social media team. And attempted to raise his profile by going to international events like the World Economic Forum in Davos. His time in Switzerland has been an abject disaster, complete with humiliating props, being relegated to the back row, and accurately criticized by members of the Trump administration for his disastrous policy failures and embarrassing behavior. 

That's where Stephen A. Smith comes in.

Gavin Newsom, governor of California, holding a knee protector during the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Stephen A. Smith Blasts Newsom For Anti-America Comments

One of Newsom's more ridiculous statements in Davos was attempting to literally undermine foreign policy goals of the current United States government. 

"Stop being complicit. It's time to stand tall and firm, have a backbone," Newsom said to the media. "I've seen this in the United States, this supine Congress, playing both sides — saying one thing in a text or a tweet and another publicly. It's time to have principle."

He kept going, saying "I can't take this complicity. People rolling over. I should've brought a bunch of knee pads for all the world leaders," Newsom said. "I mean handing out crowns. I mean this is pathetic. Nobel Prizes that are being given away."

"Diplomacy with Donald Trump? He's a T-Rex. You mate with him or he devours you. One or the other ... Wake up! Where the hell has everybody been? Stop with this (expletive) diplomacy of sort of niceties and somehow we're all going to figure it out, saying one thing privately and another publicly. Have some spine, some goddamn (expletive)."

Yes, the failed governor of one of the worst run states in the country, demanding foreign leaders go against the foreign policy of the United States government. Doesn't get much worse than that. Stephen A. heard about it, and went off on Newsom in a recent show. 

"I'm not down with that at all," Smith said. "Say whatever you want here…fine. But I'm one of those people, when we go somewhere else, it’s America first." 

"Our problems are our problems," he continued. "But we ain’t taking dirty laundry outside." "You don’t go on a world stage to disrespect your own house, which is the United States of America. I don’t like that at all, not even a little bit."

Yup. Gavin Newsom's lost Stephen A. Smith because he's just that incompetent. And Smith's absolutely right. Newsom can do his pathetic grandstanding and trolling here in order to garner support among the "Resist! No Kings!" boomer set, but going to a foreign country and specifically advocating they negotiate against the United States? That's insane. And it's even more insane considering Newsom's goal is obviously to run for president…of the United States. 

What would he say if someone went abroad to demand that foreign leaders ignore what President Newsom wants to do? He'd be furious, call it un-American, and demand they be prosecuted. That's the level of stupidity we're dealing with here. That's Gavin Newsom.