California Gov. Gavin Newsom questioned whether potential successors to President Donald Trump could carry forward the MAGA movement during an exchange with former White House press secretary Jen Psaki, singling out Vice President JD Vance as a particular concern.

“There are some people waiting in the wings in the Maga world who would love to be the chosen ones of the Trump orbit. JD, Vance is one of them. Marco Rubio is one of them. Do you think they can carry on the MAGA flame here?” Psaki asked.

“No, but Vance, for whatever reason, scares me,” Newsom responded.

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Psaki followed up, asking, “Why?”

Newsom replied, “Almost more than Trump? I don’t know.”

He continued, “I just, I mean, talk about a guy who put a mask on and his face grew into it.”

Newsom criticized both Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for their past opposition to Trump.

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“I mean, JD Vance and Marco Rubio were two of the most effective critics, just like that guy, what’s his name? Graham Lindsey of Donald Trump, what frauds? What phonies,” Newsom said.

He then focused his criticism on Vance.

“But JD is a unique fraud and phony, and he’s a little more dangerous,” Newsom said, adding that people around Vance also concern him.

“And in the folks around him, these are not folks that believe. I mean, listen to some of the biggest funders. The way they talk, there’s a nihilism to the way they talk about the world,” he said.

Newsom said he has personal familiarity with some of those individuals.

“I know these guys. I literally know them, not figuratively know them. Some of them are in the book. Knew them back when,” he said.

He then shifted to speculation about Trump’s future political role.

“So again, I don’t want to be overly hyperbolic about this, but you know it’s but that said it’s going to be hard for Trump,” Newsom said.

He suggested Trump would remain politically active.

“Trump still, you know, you think this guy is going to sit there in the oval office waiting for you to ask him a question and say, Well, sir, Jen’s not here, and she’s in Iowa with the debate with Vance. There’s no damn way on earth,” Newsom said.

He continued, “So he’s going to try to run this out until right after the end, until he can pick and choose who goes behind him, or, God forbid, we don’t take back the House of Representatives. He may be on that ballot.”

Psaki interjected, “He’ll try.”

“I just wouldn’t put it past him,” Newsom concluded.

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