California Gov. Gavin Newsom said President Trump had been “proactive” in his handling of the coronavirus and that his praise was not an attempt to “feed this guy’s ego.”
“There’s no question we’ve had our differences of opinion on many issues,” the Democrat told The View host Joy Behar about whether he was trying to “kiss” Trump’s ring. “I’m not doing it to kiss the ring, I’m not doing it in a way, you know, — I’m just being forthright with the president. He returns calls, he reaches out, he’s been proactive.”
The governor has routinely praised the president throughout the coronavirus outbreak. The rhetoric is in contrast to the pair’s contentious relationship before the pandemic.
In February, Newsom called California the “most un-Trump state in America” on The View. Trump, in his State of the Union address, blasted the state for being “totally out of control” and “costing taxpayers vast and unaffordable amounts of money.”
So far, California has the third most confirmed coronavirus cases of any state with more than 11,000, according to the New York Times. The state has also had 250 deaths from the virus.
Newsom has been proactive with his own coronavirus measures; California was one of the first states to issue a stay-at-home order. Last month, he projected that more than half of the state’s population would have the coronavirus within two months.
