California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said the governor was denied entry into a venue at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 21, after being invited to speak at the event due to “pressure” from the Trump administration.
Newsom had been scheduled to speak with Fortune at the USA House, Davos, a privately organized event, at the World Economic Forum, which has been recognized by the U.S. government as the nation’s headquarters in Davos.
“Gavin Newsom-” aaand the comments are flooded lmao. I mean, I despise Newsom as much as I can, but, also, this is World News.
In the spirit of a non-USA news subreddit, I’ll point out that California governor Newsom feels like a weird speaker for a world economic event. Yes, I know Newsom had to deal with the Republican administration when ICE and the military were deployed to Los Angeles, CA; but if you’re looking for a leader to advise you on opposing Trump from an economic standpoint, wouldn’t an economic department head from Canada be a better choice?
Canada’s been dealing with Trump’s tariffs fairly well from what I’ve seen. Facing the most direct pressure over the “51st state” invasion threats, the Canadian population is pushing away from USA brands and investing in domestic products. With alllll the nations facing tariffs from the USA, surely a dialogue about encouraging such shifts in a population would be valuable.
Given that snivelling Nigel Fucking Farage spoke at Davos the bar can’t be that high.
Good point. Newsome manages the fourth-largest economy in the world and Farage . . . well, I seem to remember something about a bus and the NHS, but I don’t think anything ever came of it, lol
I think the bus was Boris’s, which made it even more egregious for the fact that he subsequently became Prime Minister and acted like the whole thing was just a jolly jape that wasn’t meant to be taken literally.
California has the fourth largest economy in the world.
it out-performs Canada.
so yeah, it makes sense to have him there as a speaker.
if you’re talking about policy choices, canada has a lot more relevance to a world economic forum though. ata bare minimum, california is a lot more constrained in how it can behave, making its solutions largely only relevant to the context of other US states - unless you’re talking purely social/soft solutions
I don’t know where you got that idea from. doesn’t make sense when you think about it.
do you really believe there are economic constraints on a state in the largest economic country that holds capitalism in the highest regard?
If they push for something like emission standards in the US, other states get drawn in since OEMs need to adhere to California and it’s often easier just to make the 1 product everywhere, but that also ripples outside the country to some extent.
https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/04/23/california-is-now-the-4th-largest-economy-in-the-world/