Newsom’s 2025 State of the State: Letter, Video, and a Trump Takedown

California turned 175 today, and Gavin Newsom marked the occasion the way a modern governor who actually has work to do would: by sending the State of the State to the Legislature as a written letter from the Governor’s Mansion, then dropping a prerecorded, shortened video for the public to watch without having to sit through the Sacramento cosplay of “Founding Fathers, but with worse lighting.” That’s straight from the official release on the Governor’s website, which, yes, is still a thing even if some people only get their news from a guy yelling into a truck-cab webcam (Governor’s office announcement).

And of course the Los Angeles Times had to frame it like a scandal: Newsom “skips tradition again,” continuing a five-year streak of not doing the live joint-session speech in the Assembly chamber (LA Times). “Tradition,” in this case, meaning the political version of dinner theater: everyone claps on cue, the cameras pan to lawmakers doing their little performative nods, and half the audience pretends they’re shocked that California still contains both Silicon Valley and poor people at the same time.

Republicans are treating this like Watergate because they’re addicted to symbolism over substance. The Constitution requires the governor to report on the state’s condition. It does not require a live address in the Assembly chamber with a standing ovation quota. KCRA even spelled out the basic dispute: Newsom’s office says the constitutional requirement is met through the letter, while critics insist the format is an “avoidance” tactic (KCRA). The funniest part is watching the same people who whine about “accountability” show absolutely no interest in the actual document being delivered. They’re mad he didn’t show up for the ritual, not that he didn’t do the job.

The message: California is building, Washington is trying to break it

If you actually read what Newsom sent, it’s a classic California flex with teeth. He points to California’s gross state product topping $4.1 trillion, a number that basically functions as a national security asset at this point, and he pairs it with the usual highlights: green energy growth, tech and innovation, education investment, wildfire recovery, the whole “we are the engine room” thing (California Governors Library, 2025 State of the State letter).

Then he does what any governor with a pulse would do in 2025 and names the problem: a hostile Trump administration with a weird, relentless fixation on California, using federal power like a crowbar to pry at the state’s environmental rules, immigration posture, and major projects. KCRA’s coverage captures the shape of the fight: Newsom’s message blasts federal actions he describes as attacks on California’s autonomy, including rollbacks and threats that touch everything from environmental protections to high-speed rail (KCRA).

This is the part where MAGA commenters do their little “California is collapsing!!!” routine, as if the fifth-largest economy on Earth is about to tumble into the sea because a guy in Ohio is mad about electric cars. Meanwhile, the actual reality is that California keeps being the place where the future gets built, then the rest of the country shows up later acting like they invented it.

“He’s avoiding accountability” says the party that thinks oversight is posting

Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher popped up to criticize Newsom for not delivering the address in person, leaning hard into the idea that the governor is dodging tough questions on deficits, homelessness, and cost of living, according to KCRA’s reporting (KCRA). Which is precious, because if Republicans truly believed the Assembly chamber was the epicenter of accountability, they’d stop treating governing as a culture-war podcast.

Also, let’s be adults: the State of the State speech isn’t a cross-examination. It’s a message. Lawmakers don’t grill the governor mid-address like it’s a deposition. The “accountability” they’re mourning is the camera-friendly moment where they get to sit behind him and mug for the audience. They miss the set.

The deeper complaint, which they don’t say out loud because it makes them sound like the weird little control freaks they are, is that this format denies them the chance to create viral clips of performative dissent. No walkouts. No synchronized heckling. No “brave conservative” shaking his head for the third time in ten seconds like he’s doing cardio. If Gavin communicates directly through a letter and video, the attention stays on the substance and the stakes, not on Sacramento’s theater kid energy.

Fifth year in a row, and everyone knows why the freakout is performative

The LA Times notes this is Newsom’s fifth straight departure from the Assembly chamber format (LA Times). That pattern didn’t appear out of nowhere. The whole thing shifted during the pandemic era, with alternative locations and approaches becoming normal, and Newsom has kept choosing formats that reach people where they actually are, instead of pretending every Californian is sitting on the Assembly carpet waiting for a joint session.

And yes, there’s longstanding public reporting that Newsom prefers less scripted, more flexible communication, including mentions of dyslexia and comfort with set-piece speeches; the LA Times has discussed his repeated departures from the traditional live address and the rationale supporters cite (LA Times, 2023). Somehow we can build the world’s most advanced tech economy but some people still can’t grasp that different leaders communicate differently, and that written statements are, in fact, a real form of communication. A letter is literally the original form of “governor updates the Legislature.”

The part they’re really mad about: Gavin keeps picking fights Trump wants to lose

Newsom using the State of the State to sharpen the contrast with Trump isn’t a “distraction.” It’s the assignment when federal power is being used to undermine a state’s policies and punish it for having different values. If the White House is coming for your environmental rules, your immigrants, and your infrastructure projects, you don’t respond with a polite shrug and a ribbon cutting. You organize the resistance, you mobilize the legal strategy, you tell your Legislature what the threat is, and you speak to the public like they’re grown.

KCRA points out the address leaned into that state-federal conflict and nodded to the litigation posture California’s been in, with Attorney General Rob Bonta repeatedly involved in those battles (KCRA). This is what it looks like when a state treats the law as a tool for protection, not a costume for cosplay.

If “tradition” is the hill you die on, you already lost the plot

If Republicans want to argue about budget deficits, homelessness, and affordability, welcome to the grown-up table. Those problems are real, stubborn, and often infuriating. But screaming about the delivery format like the message doesn’t count unless it’s performed live in the chamber is the kind of brain poisoning that happens when your party replaces policy with vibes.

The letter exists. The video exists. The constitutional requirement is met, as Newsom’s office has argued in prior years when this complaint resurfaces (KCRA). The Legislature received the report. The public got a digestible version. And on the day California hit 175, the governor used the spotlight to do what the job demands: brag about the state’s strength, name the forces trying to sabotage it, and remind everyone that California isn’t asking permission to keep moving.

So sure, call it “skipping tradition” if you need a headline that makes the comment section foam. The adults are reading the actual message and preparing for the very real fight with a federal administration that can’t stop obsessing over the state it wishes it could govern.