California Governor Gavin Newsom traveled to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, where he promoted climate agreements and delivered another glossy sales pitch for California.

The performance offered plenty of presidential posing, Trump bashing, and green boasting, but precious little governing.

Newsom has claimed he will not seek the presidency in 2028 if former Vice President Kamala Harris runs.

Yet his appearance featured meetings with world leaders, international photo opportunities, and memorandums of understanding with governments that remain committed to renewable energy policies.

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His speech opened with a warning about public cynicism and anxiety.

“Thank you for being here. Thank you for not falling prey to the cynicism, the anxiety that I think all of us feel.”

Newsom also invoked his prior appearance before the assembly and attacked President Donald Trump over remarks concerning Iran.

“You heard that speech from my president, yesterday. All but called for genocide of 93 million people.”

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From there, Newsom returned to one of his favorite promotional lines, declaring California the world’s fourth largest economy.

He also praised the state’s diversity, noting that its population is 27% foreign born and describing pluralism as a source of California’s economic strength.

What Newsom did not mention was California’s $18 billion deficit.

His victory lap also skipped over $32 billion in unemployment insurance fraud, 1.2 million fake community college applicants, and $24 billion in homelessness funding that the source described as having disappeared without adequate results.

The governor likewise ignored the Train to Nowhere, which received $6.8 billion from the federal government without an inch of track being laid.

Those details apparently did not fit inside the carefully polished California success story presented at the UN.

Newsom instead emphasized California’s opposition to Trump.

“We're also the most un-Trump state in the United States of America,” he said before predicting that Democrats would take back the House of Representatives in November and restore checks and balances.

Climate policy eventually became the center of his remarks.

Newsom accused Trump and his supporters of ignoring what he called an obvious problem caused by burning coal, gas, and oil, while presenting California as the smarter alternative.

“That fourth largest economy in California runs every day on two-thirds clean energy,” Newsom said.

He further claimed that during nine out of 10 days so far this year, California had operated on “a hundred percent renewable energy,” which must be normalized as 100% renewable energy.

Newsom argued that California had moved beyond setting climate goals and entered what he called the implementation phase.

He insisted the state was proving that changing how energy is produced and consumed does not require sacrificing economic growth.

The speech omitted what Californians are paying for that experiment.

According to the Public Advocate’s Office at the California Public Utilities Commission, rates at Pacific Gas and Electric, San Diego Gas and Electric, and Southern California Edison have increased 121%, 88%, and 80% since 2014.

The same office attributed rising bills to higher electricity use and higher electricity rates.

It found that 2.3 million households, nearly one in five, were behind on their energy bills and owed an average of $788.

Newsom also claimed California’s regulations helped create Elon Musk and Tesla.

“There is no, forgive us, Elon Musk, without California's regulatory system, that created the certainty, where he could make the investments that ultimately became Tesla.”

That boast came despite Tesla and Musk no longer being based in California, in part because of the state’s regulatory system.

Newsom also avoided discussing Chevron, Oracle, and thousands of other companies described as having moved to states with friendlier business regulations.

Newsom credited California’s transition toward lower carbon emissions with producing what he called green growth.

He claimed the state had experienced 40% GDP growth since 2019 while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by double digits.

The governor closed by praising mayors and governors as local doers capable of realizing broader visions.

He wrapped the address with references to moral authority, future generations, and a promise to return to the United Nations with what he called “the fresh air of progress.”

WATCH:

Donald Trump is temporary, but California will endure. My remarks to the @UN Special Session on Climate Action: pic.twitter.com/n4Aj7uCFJf

— Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) September 23, 2026

For critics, the speech was less a record of success than a convenient package of future opposition research.

Newsom offered lofty climate rhetoric and presidential staging while leaving California’s deficit, rising utility costs, unpaid bills, fraud, and expensive government failures safely outside the spotlight.

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