'It’s a war on all women': Jennifer Siebel Newsom on recent Trump administration firings

"No woman is safe in Trump's Republican party," Jennifer Siebel Newsom, California Governor Gavin Newsom's wife, said, reacting to the recent firings of Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi by the Trump administration. Kristi Noem was fired as the Secretary of Homeland Security on March 5, making her the first Senate-confirmed Cabinet member to be ousted during President Trump's second term. Bondi lost her position as Attorney General a month later, on April 2.  

While both Noem and Bondi's tenures were marked with several controversies, the California 'First Partner' claimed that an underlying reason for their ouster was that they were women. For Noem, who had been under fire for labelling the deaths of Rene Good and Alex Pretti as a result of domestic terrorism, had been under scrutiny for her handling of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), spending at the Department of Homeland Security, and her alleged relationship with Corey Lewandowski. Bondi, on the other hand, faced severe criticism for her handling of the Epstein files and was, in the past, publicly rebuked by President Trump for failing to act against some of his political adversaries. 

However, Newsom, in her video message on Instagram, indicated that their alignment with President Trump left them without any power or job security in the first place. "When you align yourself with that value system, with a leader who has publicly devalued women, degraded them, and been found liable of abusing women," Newsom said. "Well, guess what? You're going to be the first to go."

While she acknowledged that she is not a "fan of Pam Bondi or Kristi Noem," Newsom said that it was no surprise to her that the first two prominent people to be ousted by the Trump administration were women. "The conservative women that Trump handpicks who align themselves with an agenda that controls women—restricting our rights, limiting our autonomy—it is only in service of men," Newsom said.

"There's a familiar pattern here. Women are brought in, packaged Mar-a-Lago style, and lifted up as long as they commit to wholeheartedly serve the interests of the patriarch at the top. But there is no secure place inside this hand-picked patriarchal body that systemically disrespects, devalues, and discriminates against women and girls," Newsom added, before ending her statement by calling it a "war on women." "So my friends, regardless of your political affiliation, you might want to wake up and see this for what it truly is: It’s a war on all women," she said.