OAN Staff Nicole Mitchell
7:44 PM – Wednesday, January 21, 2026
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has slammed Governor Gavin Newsom at the World Economic Forum in Davos, referring to him as a “smug man,” who strikes his as “Patrick Bateman meets Sparkle Beach Ken.”
On Wednesday, Bessent lashed out on the Golden State governor, calling him “economically illiterate.”
“I was told he was asked to give a speech on his signature policies, but he’s not speaking because what have his economic policies brought? Outward migration from California, a gigantic budget deficit, the largest homeless population in America, and the poor folks in the Palisades who had their homes burned down,” the Treasury secretary said.
“He is here hobnobbing with the global elite while his California citizens are still homeless. Shame on him,” Bessent continued. “He’s too smug, too self-absorbed, and too economically illiterate to know anything.”
The secretary also accused Newsom of prioritizing the elite global gathering over his state’s rising crises. He added that the governor may be the only Californian who knows less about economics than failed Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
“[He] may be the only Californian who knows less about economics than Kamala Harris. He’s here this week with his billionaire sugar daddy, Alex Soros, and Davos is the perfect place for a man who, when everyone else was on lockdown, when he was having people arrested for going to church, he was having $1,000 a night meals at the French Laundry,” he added. “And I’m sure the California people won’t forget that.”
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