NEWNow you can listen to Fox News articles!
Gavin Newsom, who enjoys using Trump-like stomping tactics, is widely considered the Democratic presidential front-runner.
He’s riding a wave of interviews and podcasts, fueled by a new memory, and trying to make the case that as governor of California he’s not as liberal as his record might suggest. Unlike most of her teammates, for example, she is against trans women competing against men.
NEWSOM SAYS TRUMP ONE OF THE ‘MOST CONTROLLING’ PRESIDENTS ALIVE: ‘THIS MAN HAS NO POWER’
But there is an important fact about Newsom that, while unknown to insiders and some in his own community, is undoubtedly news to many Americans.
Gavin Newsom is dyslexic. Very dyslexic. And as a new profile in the New Yorker makes clear, that affects his life every day.
Newsom showed author Nathan Heller “a folder of his printed matter, his reading from the previous evening. Almost every word of the text was underlined. He flipped through the proof plate of his memoir, where the underlining covered entire pages—the only way, he said, he could read any book, even his own. He produced another folder full of paper loaded and covered with handwriting under all the writing.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom listens to President Donald Trump address the World Economic Forum at the Davos Congress Center on Jan. 21, 2026 in Davos, Switzerland. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Then it goes on to the yellow index cards.
The bottom line is that the governor is struggling to do what every working politician should do, and that is to deliver speeches. He should copy each word down and memorize it. In TelePrompTer, “he sees lines of text … as a single image, like a Chinese character, which he uses to remember the next line.”
California Congresswoman Lateefah Simon says a four-hour podcast is easier for Newsom than a 10-minute speech.
NEWSOM’S DAVOS DETOUR: 5 CRINGE MOMENTS THAT CAUSED A TOP POLICY CRISIS
This disability affected his upbringing, with Newsom sometimes faking being sick in order to be picked up early from school. “He always called himself an idiot,” said his sister.
During a 90-minute trip to Sacramento with his wife, a film producer, and their four children, he jots down notes that are later transferred to cards and pieces of paper.
So if Newsom were to make it to the Oval Office, he’d likely rely more on spoken word papers rather than reports and documents.
The governor describes himself as someone who was raised on hardscrabble, going through big bowls of mac and cheese. One former colleague told the New Yorker that this was Newsom’s “‘I was born a poor black kid’ story.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom addresses the crowd at the Kershaw County Center on July 8, 2025 in Camden, South Carolina. The governor is on his first two-day tour of rural South Carolina, which is held by the Democratic Party. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
In fact, he went with John Paul Getty’s family, because of his father’s connections. Newsom’s parents separated when he was three,
There is more to the story. Newsom’s sister Hilary accused him of continuing to work while their mother took her own life.
NEWSOM OUT WITH TRUMP OVER ‘CARNIVAL OF CHAOS’ Amid MINNESOTA ICE SHOOTING FUROR
Other parts of the story of life that are discussed here are better known. The failure of Newsom’s marriage to Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former leftist lawyer in the DA’s office (who later joined Fox News, had a bad relationship with Donald Trump Jr. and is now the ambassador to Greece). The way she was dating the city secretary, who was married to one of her top aides, she admitted: “Everything you’ve heard and read is true.”
And most damaging, during the violence, when the governor urged Californians to avoid large gatherings, he dined, without a mask, with medical executives and a lobbyist at the super-chic French Laundry. That led to a field goal attempt, which Newsom scored 24 points.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom looks on during a bill signing ceremony related to the redrawing of state federal maps on August 21, 2025, in Sacramento, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The governor, who has repeatedly failed to solve the state’s homelessness problem, is an unusual man. He worked against the union’s demand for a tax increase on billionaires, saying it would drive them out of the government. He told President Donald Trump that keeping the border closed is important, and he wants to downgrade California’s sanctuary status.
On Election Day last year, Newsom met with aides after spending three hours reading about electric vehicle policy.
“It’s a great way to start each day,” he said. “How many books I could read! Books! Philosophy!”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS PROGRAM
Is America ready for Gavin Newsom, who has the biggest social media following, as a possible president? Are the voters ready for him as a person, dyslexia and all, and as a politician, when California is considered liberal La-La-Land?
I don’t know, and I don’t think you do, either. But we may find out soon.
