I keep harping about making tax bracket cutoffs divide by the number of family members. The policy seems so obvious that I'm surprised taxes don't already work that way.

— Dr. Dad, PhD 🔄🔼◀️🔽▶️ (@GarrettPetersen) March 1, 2025

!chuds !transphobes

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a pioneer for LGBTQ+ rights who decades ago upset leaders in his own party when he defied state law and issued marriage licenses to same-s*x couples, suggested Democrats were in the wrong in allowing transgender athletes to participate in female college and youth sports.

"I think it's an issue of fairness, I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness --- it's deeply unfair," Newsom said in his debut podcast episode of "This is Gavin Newsom." "I am not wrestling with the fairness issue. I totally agree with you."

Newsom's comments on the issue roiling political debates nationwide came in a conversation with influential MAGA-world figure Charlie Kirk, the campus culture warrior who leads the organization Turning Point USA and is a close ally of President Donald Trump and his son, Donald Trump Jr.

Newsom also agreed that the most politically destructive attack ads from Trump's campaign featured Kamala Harris' support for providing taxpayer-funded gender transition-related medical care for detained immigrants and federal prisoners.

"She didn't even react to it, which was even more devastating," Newsom said, suggesting upward of 90 percent of Americans disagreed with Harris' position. "Then you had the video [of Harris] as a validator. Brutal," Newsom added. "It was a great ad."

Kirk challenged Newsom, a likely 2028 presidential hopeful, to speak out against AB Hernandez, a transgender high school track star from California whose triple jump event in the women's competition is drawing fierce backlash from the right. Newsom said he has four children of his own --- including two daughters --- and noted that both he and his wife participated in college-level sports, she in soccer and he in baseball.

"I revere sports, so the issue of fairness is completely legit," Newsom said. "And I saw that --- the last couple years, boy did I [see] how you guys were able to weaponize that issue at another level."

Kirk challenged Newsom over his use of the word "weaponize," and Newsom replaced it with "highlight."

POLITICO last month was first to report Newsom's new podcast, with the Democratic governor saying he drew inspiration from the likes of HBO provocateur Bill Maher, who regularly finds common ground with conservative adversaries while taking frequent aim at Democratic dogma, including on youth trans issues.

Newsom's interview with Kirk was friendly, sometimes exceedingly so. He mentioned the influence Kirk and other MAGA-world figures have had on his 13-year-old son, distanced himself from the use of pronouns and the gender-neutral term "Latinx," called police defunding "lunacy," denounced "cancel culture" and agreed that there had been some internal issues in the leadership of the Black Lives Matter organization.

Indeed, the 75-minute interview presented Newsom in the opposite light than he appeared in over recent years when stumping as a surrogate for former President Joe Biden and Harris and sparring with ideological foes like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Fox News' Sean Hannity.

Newsom in the podcast also was self-deprecating --- joking that he only eats meals (including grabbing take-out) at the famed three-Michelin star French Laundry where he got considerable heat for attending a friends' party during Covid lockdowns and conceding that he should have been celebrating at the everyman eatery Applebee's.

On youth trans sports Kirk drew out a longer response.

There are relatively few transgender athletes competing at the collegiate level. But Newsom said it was "easy to call out" the unfairness, echoing concerns raised by Republicans in Washington and across the country who argue that banning trans women and girls from participating in school athletic competitions designated for female athletes would ensure fairness.

While Newsom has at times touched on his own concerns about the issue, particularly around youth sports, the remarks on his eponymous new podcast are his most expansive on the topic. He went on to express sympathy for trans people, noting "these poor people" have higher rates of suicide and depression and saying "the way that people talk down to vulnerable communities is an issue that I have a hard time with, as well."

Yet, Newsom said Kirk was right when he contended that Republicans were capitalizing politically by painting Democrats as out of step with a strong majority of Americans on the issue. Earlier this week, Senate Democrats blocked a GOP-led effort to bar transgender girls from female youth sports.

"I agree with you," Newsom said. "We're getting crushed on it. Crushed. Crushed."

Newsom noted his own leadership on issues of LGBTQ+ rights but he said even some of his friends have privately asked him why he's not been more vocal about trans athletes.

He said the authority for trans K-12 athletes competing in girls' and womens' sports came from a 2014 state law --- signed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown --- that also allowed students who identified as transgender to use school bathrooms "consistent with their gender identity."

Newsom compared his position on trans athletes to conservatives who oppose same-s*x marriage on principle --- saying he values that Kirk and others are not abandoning their opposition now that gay marriages are both legally and socially acceptable by a majority of Americans.

I think many Dems didn't watch it. I didn't. I'm just watching the recap. That said, if the polls are true, our country is full of gullible idiots who don't know they're being lied to.

They literally have a poll in it saying it's mostly Republicans / independents watching

I wanted to add more quotes, but this here is the whole comment section

Jasmine Crock-o-Shit beclowns herself by calling it the State of the Union.

It’s a speech to a joint session of Congress.

The “Congresswoman” can’t even get her Congressional facts straight. https://t.co/IcRfcNpjiO

— Steven Cheung (@StevenCheung47) March 5, 2025

He's been with Trump since 2016 campaign. Is he where the nick names come from

FULL TEXT

NEW YORK, March 4 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's administration and Ukraine plan to sign a minerals deal that fell through after a disastrous Oval Office meeting Friday in which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was dismissed from the building, four people familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump has told his advisers that he wants to announce the agreement in his address to Congress on Tuesday evening, three of the sources said, cautioning that the deal had yet to be signed and the situation could change.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ukraine's presidential administration in Kyiv and the Ukrainian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The deal was put on hold on Friday after a contentious Oval Office meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that resulted in the Ukrainian leader's swift departure from the White House. Zelenskiy had traveled to Washington to sign the deal.

In that meeting, Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Zelenskiy, telling him he should thank the U.S. for its support rather than asking for additional aid in front of the U.S. media.

"You're gambling with World War III," Trump said.

U.S. officials have in recent days spoken to officials in Kyiv about signing the minerals deal despite Friday's blow-up, and urged Zelenskiy's advisers to convince the Ukrainian president to apologize openly to Trump, according to one of the people familiar with the matter.

On Tuesday, Zelenskiy posted on X that Ukraine was ready to sign the deal and called the Oval Office meeting "regrettable."

"Our meeting in Washington, at the White House on Friday, did not go the way it was supposed to be," Zelenskiy said in his post. "Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer."

It was unclear if the deal has changed. The deal that was to be signed last week included no explicit security guarantees for Ukraine but gave the U.S. access to revenues from Ukraine's natural resources. It also envisaged the Ukrainian government contributing 50% of future monetization of any state-owned natural resources to a U.S.-Ukraine managed reconstruction investment fund.

On Monday, Trump signaled that his administration remained open to signing the deal, telling reporters in a gaggle that Ukraine "should be more appreciative."

"This country has stuck with them through thick and thin," Trump said. "We've given them much more than Europe, and Europe should have given more than us."

France, Britain and possibly other European countries have offered to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire but would want support from the U.S. or a "backstop." Moscow has rejected proposals for peacekeeping troops.

Daniel Fried, a former senior White House official and ambassador to Poland, said the path to getting the minerals deal done has been messy, but it would deliver two solid wins for Trump - Zelenskiy's statement of regret and the agreement of Britain and France to provide security and boots on the ground.

"Trump can and should take the win. He'd be able to say that he ... got the Europeans to stand up in front of an issue of European security, which they've never done before," said Fried, now a fellow at the Atlantic Council.

Sign up here.

Reporting by Erin Banco, Gram Slattery and Andrea Shalal; Additional reporting by Yuliia Dysa in Kyiv; Editing by Don Durfee and David Gregorio

IMPORTANT POLL

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