'Ramblings of a mad king': Gavin Newsom slams Donald Trump's address to the nation

California Governor Gavin Newsom slammed President Donald Trump's address to the nation on Thursday, claiming that Americans experienced "the ramblings of a mad king." He claimed that the President was laying the groundwork to "rig" the upcoming midterm elections in November, and urged voters not to fall for it. "This is what authoritarians do. Don't fall for it. Organize. Mobilize. SHOW UP and VOTE in November!" he wrote in a post on X.

During his address, Trump claimed Chinese interference during the 2020 presidential election campaign, including the country's illegal acquisition of more than 220 million U.S. voter files, and said that the election system was hijacked by the deep state and foreign powers. He also cast doubt on the recent California elections. "As one example of the insanity, California's recent election for mayor of LA and governor was held on June 2nd, a long time ago, but it was just completed a few days ago, on July 10th. Think of that, much more than one month," he said, as per a transcript published by CNN.

The President questioned mail-in ballots, which he said were corrupt. "And hopefully there will be no corrupt mail-in ballots, which, if you watched California and so many other places, mail-in ballots are inherently corrupt," he said. Newsom reacted to that statement with a post on X, saying that anyone attempting to interfere in his state's election would face consequences.

"Anyone attempting to interfere with California voters, tamper with our ballots, or meddle with our elections will be held accountable," he wrote. Earlier this year, Newsom had revealed that he had signed a bill that would make it illegal to seize ballots or interfere with election equipment. The announcement did not go down well with Republicans who, like Trump, had questioned the integrity of the elections in California due to the delayed vote-counting process.

To support his claims, President Trump directed the administration to declassify intelligence reports related to the matter. However, according to the New York Times, the evidence was not strong enough. An examination of the more than 270 declassified pages shows what the White House had already announced in 2020, and 2021 was rereleased with some finer details. It showed that China made modest attempts to influence elections and downloaded publicly available voter rolls. However, there was no evidence of Beijing tampering with ballots.

Speaking about Trump's address, Newsom also called for the 25th Amendment, claiming that the only thing missing from the President's address to the nation was "tinfoil." "Don't get me wrong. Foreign interference in our elections, that's a real thing. Nothing about what you watched tonight, though, was real. It's make-believe. If he wants to rig the election in 2026, he knows he is going to lose; he needs to rig the election before one vote is cast," he said. He used the President's address to urge voters to come out in numbers and make the Democrats a majority in Congress.