Gavin Newsom admits he 'nursed a bottle of tequila' while LA burned and Trump blamed him for fire
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: California Governor Gavin Newsom has admitted he spent one of the darkest weeks of his political life drinking tequila as the Palisades Fire raged through Los Angeles while then-President-elect Donald Trump publicly blamed him for the unfolding disaster.
In a candid interview with Bloomberg Businessweek published Friday, Newsom confessed he “nursed a bottle of tequila” at home as flames engulfed neighborhoods across LA.
“I felt the weight of everything collapsing,” Newsom recalled, describing the January inferno that destroyed more than 7,000 homes and businesses and claimed 12 lives.
Gavin Newsom recalls ‘everything collapsing’ as fires raged
Newsom, 58, said he had just returned from visiting the still-burning ruins of Los Angeles, where residents berated him on the streets and firefighters struggled with dry hydrants. “We just lost the election,” he told Bloomberg. “I was watching Elon at peak Elon, Trump at peak Trump.”
At the same time, Trump unleashed a series of blistering posts on Truth Social, ripping California’s leadership for failing to contain the blaze. “The fires are still raging in LA. The incompetent pols have no idea how to put them out,” Trump wrote on January 12. “They just can’t put out the fires. What’s wrong with them?”
In another post days earlier, Trump accused Newsom of “prioritizing an endangered fish over the people of LA” and claimed he drained local reservoirs, declaring, “He is to blame for this.”
Gavin Newsom was ‘a train wreck’ during LA fires, says close pal Doug Hendrickson
Newsom’s longtime friend Doug Hendrickson, who joined him during that emotional night, described the governor as deeply shaken.
“He was getting absolutely massacred by everybody,” Hendrickson told Bloomberg. “Like it was his fault, the whole thing. He was sort of a train wreck.”
RIGHT NOW: #PalisadesFire PCH is on fire. I am on my way driving to a place where there is a signal. This was moments ago. Like driving through hell! pic.twitter.com/OCL7Ko4HB1
— Alexandra Datig | Front Page Index 🇺🇸 (@alexdatig) January 8, 2025
It remains unclear whether the two were drinking at the California Governor’s mansion in Sacramento or at Newsom’s $9 million mansion in Marin County.
But Newsom admitted he feared what was coming once Trump took office on January 20. “I’m like, this is a different guy,” he said, recalling how he had previously worked with Trump to combat another LA fire in 2018.
Gavin Newsom says LA fires helped shape his political future
The 2025 fires and the political fallout that followed became a turning point for Newsom, who has since emerged as one of Trump’s fiercest Democratic critics. As former Vice President Kamala Harris’ short-lived 2024 campaign imploded, Newsom positioned himself as a potential standard-bearer for the party heading into 2028.
He has since ramped up his attacks on Trump, even adopting the president’s bombastic online persona.
