Armed with a glowing column by a leading publication in the financial press that praised California’s economic performance amid tenuous times at the national and global levels, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday fired back at critics behind headlines tracking the state’s failings on a number of pressing issues.
Wildfires, droughts, floods, mass transportation, aging roads, education, homelessness, unaffordable housing, widening inequality and poverty — plus the exodus of billionaires, corporate headquarters and longtime residents — top the list of oft-repeated critiques against the termed-out governor who is considering a run for the U.S. presidency in 2028.
According to the governor’s office, “Under the Newsom administration, the California economy has continued to dominate, despite Trump’s failed economic policies and sustained political attacks by Murdoch’s right-wing media machine against the Golden State.”
As Matthew Winkler, Bloomberg News editor in chief emeritus, recently wrote: “Of all the prevailing media narratives around Gavin Newsom, the one that is most conspicuous by its absence is how under its two-term governor California became the top performing economy not just among its 49 siblings but also any developed nation. No wonder Elon Musk quietly sought Newsom’s help when the world’s richest man sought to move a bunch of Tesla Inc. engineers back to the state after relocating them to Texas.”
Under the headline “Who Knew ‘Slick’ Gavin Newsom Was Such an Economic Maestro?” Winkler expounds on a long list of economic accomplishments since the governor’s election in 2019, noting that California with population of 39 million people just supplanted Japan with 123 million as the world’s fourth-largest economy.
The Bloomberg column reported that after Newsom took office, the state’s gross domestic product surged 40% to more than $4 trillion, accounting for more than 14% of U.S. output. This outpaced major economies including China, which expanded 32%, and Germany’s 16% GDP growth.
The Trump administration questioned Bloomberg’s conclusions, noting the recent exodus of people and businesses from the state.
“If California’s economy was doing so well under Gavin Newsom’s watch, millions of Californians would not have fled to GOP-led states like Texas and Florida over the past 10 years,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement to HeySoCal.com.
Among the accomplishments listed in the Bloomberg column, California is 12% of the U.S. population and drove more than 40% of growth in the U.S. stock market value.
“California accounted for 70 percentage points, more than triple No. 2 Washington (20 points), almost five times No. 3 Texas (15 points) and No. 4 New York (13 points) and almost 12 times No. 5 Ohio (6 points),” according to Bloomberg.
California-based companies spent $527 billion annually on acquisitions during Newsom’s tenure, almost three times the $179 billion spent annually in the 20 years prior to 2019, the column reported.
Talent hub
California’s “talent pipeline” was also a on the Bloomberg list.
“California’s not-so-secret sauce happens to be the diversity between its citizens’ ears instead of the fossil fuels generating the biggest share of Texas growth,” Winkler wrote.
The state’s more than 600 colleges and universities make California peerless in the breadth of higher education availability compared with U.S. states or any of the world’s developed economies. California has the highest enrollment in higher education that creates a leading “talent pipeline,” with one college or university for every 64,000 citizens, more than the UK and Germany, according to the governor’s office.
The Bloomberg column also noted that California produces more engineers than any other state, reporting that “investors in California are getting 11% of their return from the University of California, the Los Angeles Unified School District and California State University.”
Industry leaders
According to Newsom, California’s industries are fueling the nation.
Bloomberg reported the industries contributing most to that state’s economic performance.
Technology firms based in California lead the nationwide industry with 41 companies generating a 603% total return over the past decade — four times the gain of their global peers in the past two, three and five years.
California makes up 62% of all U.S. venture capital funding and did 31.5% of venture capital deals last year. “The runner-up in 2025 was New York with 13.3%. Massachusetts was next, just ahead of Texas — both below 6%,“ according to Bloomberg.
Health care contributed 52% to the state’s GDP last year, “despite MAGA attacks on the industry,” according to Newsom’s office.
The column noted that “California’s uninsured rate declined to a record-low 6.4% in 2023, the largest drop in the US, from more than 17% a decade ago, helped by the Covered California and Medi-Cal expanded coverage programs.”
Infrastructure and trade keep the U.S. economy moving due to the Newsom administration’s infrastructure investments, according to the governor’s office. The Port of Los Angeles is the nation’s “gateway to global trade, handling more than $300 billion of cargo annually,” Winkler wrote.
Clean energy and clean transportation are helping California maintain its future-facing dominance, officials said. The largest eight clean companies in the state have seen their stock value rise 56% on average since 2019, compared with 40% for their global counterparts.
“Their 7% average annual gain in revenue crushes the 5% global average,” Winkler wrote. “California renewable energy companies will see 17% revenue growth in the coming year, more than doubling the 7% increase of global peers, according to analyst estimates.“
State officials called on the public to “Forget the political attacks. Industry knows its breadwinners are in the Golden State.”
The Bloomberg column reported an exchange between Newsom and Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and a former Trump adviser.
“Even after Musk … decried California as ‘a land of taxes, over-regulation and litigation’ when he moved the company’s headquarters along with its research and development leadership to Texas in 2021, the world’s richest person admitted a year later that Tesla couldn’t succeed without California-based engineers,” Winkler wrote.
“’I will never forget’ when Musk ‘called me,'” Newsom reportedly recalled. “He said, ‘I’m surprised you’re picking up the phone. I may actually ask you for some help’ because ‘I can’t find the talent in Texas. Don’t say a word.’”
Musk did not respond to a request for comment.