Charlie Kirk warns of Newsom's potential for 2028: 'GOP beware'

Charlie Kirk, popular conservative commentator and founder of Turning Point USA, made headlines recently for being the first guest on Gavin Newsom's podcast. Days later, he published an opinion piece in which he reflected on the intentions that the governor of California hides behind the program. According to his analysis, everything points to 2028.

Newsom, who will not be able to seek a third term in 2026, announced his podcast last month, assuring that he planned to have in-depth conversations with "top leaders and architects of the MAGA movement." Indeed, the first guest was Kirk and the second was Steve Bannon.

The governor is expected to keep adding guests with this profile, who sit in a picturesque office converted into a recording studio.

"Newsom wants to be president more than any living person"

For the founder of Turning Point USA, the intentions behind the governor's new initiative are very clear: to clean up his image ahead of the next presidential election.

"Gavin Newsom wants to run for president in three years, and he thinks that talking conservative figures like me increase his recognition, help him present as a centrist, and cast him as a champion of the left in a time when the left has no real leaders," Kirk wrote in an op-ed published on Fox News.

"Unsurprisingly, Newsom is charming and friendly in-person. You don’t become governor of 40 million people without having some charisma. But there’s clearly a layer beneath the charm. I saw that Newsom wants to be president more than any living person (and possibly every dead person, too). He is an ambitious man, and his new podcast is clearly a product of that ambition," he added.

"He’s moving to where the puck will be in four years"

At the same time, the conservative commentator said the governor plans to gradually move toward the center, with the goal of going into 2028 with various stances that would make people forget the policies he pushed during his governorship.

"But he can see the polls. He’s moving to where the puck will be in four years," Kirk noted in his write-up.

Indeed, during the podcast the governor became one of the first high-profile Democrats to distance himself from one of the party's pillars over the past few years: that transgender athletes should be able to compete in women's sports.

"I think it's a matter of fairness; I completely agree with you on that. It's a fairness issue. It's deeply unfair," he told Kirk.

"One thing I learned in my podcast experience: The governor isn’t a joke"

Finally, the conservative commentator described the program as "a charm offensive" and a "calculated move" designed to refresh him politically.

"A rebrand for a man who knows the Democratic Party took a beating in 2024 and needs a new face. He hopes that by looking moderate on the perfect cocktail of issues, he can both get liberals to back him in a primary and then moderates and Republicans to back him in a general election," Kirk continued.

"It might work. One thing I learned in my podcast experience: The governor isn’t a joke. He has a shark’s instincts and is hoping that voters will have a goldfish’s memory," he concluded.