Gavin Newsom’s time as California’s governor is running out, which may be why he’s accelerating his stances on tackling an increasingly AI-dominated economy ahead of his potential 2028 presidential run.
On Tuesday, Newsom – speaking at Center for American Progress A conference with the organization’s CEO, Neera Tanden, indicated that he is considering sweeping new economic safety net programs in response to artificial intelligence and worker displacement, while saying that President Trump’s economy is failing ordinary Americans despite rosy macroeconomic statistics.
“This is my mindset as I try to finish out the last seven months of my administration,” Newsom said during an appearance at the Center for American Progress in Washington. “I’m thinking about global core capital, I’m thinking about public equity funds and dividends. I’m thinking about equity.”
Newsom said he is also exploring policies modeled on European welfare systems, including wage replacement programs and expanding worker protections as artificial intelligence threatens white-collar jobs across the economy.
“I’m thinking about what you know you’re seeing in places like Denmark that are doing 90% wage replacement over two years,” Newsom said.
“I think about the fact that we have the right to have a transition — it’s not just a chapter in a LinkedIn post.”
Newsom’s comments came amid a broader attack on what the governor called a “broken” economic system under Trump and decades of rising inequality.
“The system is broken, folks,” Newsom said. “10% of people own two-thirds of the wealth, and the same 10% own 93% of the stock market value.”
The remarks underscore the economic message Newsom is likely to fine-tune during the 2028 presidential campaign as Democrats grapple with working-class frustration and rapid changes driven by artificial intelligence.
Newsom warned that millions of white-collar jobs could soon disappear, and said government programs designed nearly a century ago are no longer equipped for the modern economy.
“You can’t save democracy unless we democratize the economy,” Newsom said.
He has repeatedly argued that Americans are increasingly disconnected from the headline economic numbers touted by politicians in both parties.
“I was there scratching my head for Biden,” Newsom said, recalling his support for the former president’s economic agenda in 2024. “I was advocating for the economy to be booming and inflation to be slow…but people weren’t feeling it.”
He added: “We do not live in totality.” “People weren’t experiencing that.”
Newsom accused Trump of repeating “the same damned mistake” by touting economic growth numbers while ordinary Americans continue to suffer from costs and insecurity.
Citing warnings from AI leaders, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Newsom said policymakers are underestimating how disruptive AI will be on white-collar workers.
“So Dario [Amodei] “That’s wrong Anthropic, which says that in the next four-and-a-half years, 50% of white-collar employees will be entry-level — just think about it, it’s wrong by half, just think about the consequences of that,” Newsom said.
The state of California is already preparing implementation measures and pilot programs aimed at easing the transition period.
“We have an executive order in this area,” Newsom said. “We have been working very hard…to begin to address some of these concerns, to address the inevitable displacement.”
The governor mixed dots on economic populism with attacks on Trump, repeatedly calling the incumbent president “corrupt” and encouraging Democrats to become more politically aggressive.
“This is a story of corruption, plain and simple,” Newsom said of the Trump administration. “It is a great scandal.”