Governor Gavin Newsom is “threatening to commit criminal tax evasion,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday, amid an escalating war of words between California and the Trump administration.
The warning from Bessent came in response to Newsom recently suggesting that his state “cut” off the more than $80 billion “more in taxes than we get back” in response to a CNN report with sources claiming President Donald Trump was preparing a broad cancellation of federal funding for California.
“Governor [Gavin Newsom] is threatening to commit criminal tax evasion. His plan: defraud the American taxpayer and leave California residents on the hook for unpaid federal taxes,” Bessent said in a thread posted on X.
“I am certain most California businesses know that failing to pay taxes owed to the Treasury constitutes tax evasion and have no intention of following the dangerous path Governor [Gavin Newsom] is threatening,” Bessent added. “I would warn state officials, including payroll managers, that federal law attaches personal liability to an ‘attempt to evade or defeat tax.’”
Newsom’s “comments are extremely reckless. Instead of committing criminal tax evasion, Governor Newsom should consider a tax plan for California that follows the Trump Tax Cuts model and reduces the onerous state tax burden to allow families to keep more of their hard-earned money,” Bessent concluded.
Bessent posted the thread as Newsom, a Democrat widely considered a potential candidate for the presidency, clashed with President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over troop deployments to California in an effort to quell violent anti-ICE protests that have taken place in and around Los Angeles over the weekend.
After Hegseth said active-duty Marines at Camp Pendleton would be mobilized to assist National Guardsmen if the chaos persists, Newsom accused the Defense Secretary of exhibiting “deranged behavior” for “threatening to deploy active-duty Marines on American soil against its own citizens.”
In response, Hegseth said on X, “Deranged = allowing your city to burn & law enforcement to be attacked. There is plenty of room for peaceful protest, but ZERO tolerance for attacking federal agents who are doing their job. The National Guard, and Marines if need be, stand with ICE.”
