U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent delivered a blistering and unusually personal rebuke of California Governor Gavin Newsom during a press conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 21, 2026. Responding to Newsom’s recent criticisms of European leaders for engaging with President Trump on tariffs and U.S. strategic ambitions, Bessent dismissed the governor’s economic credibility with a sharp-edged quip that immediately drew attention across political and media circles.

“I think it’s very, very ironic that Newsom—who strikes me as Patrick Bateman meets Sparkle Beach Ben—may be the only Californian who knows less about economics than Kamala Harris,” Bessent said, before adding that Newsom was attending Davos “with his billionaire sugar daddy, Alex Soros.” The remark combined cultural satire with political attack, referencing the fictional Wall Street psychopath from American Psycho and a flamboyant pop-culture archetype associated with elite aesthetics, while underscoring what Bessent portrayed as Newsom’s detachment from economic reality.

Bessent’s comments came amid heightened transatlantic debate sparked by President Trump’s aggressive negotiating posture, including tariff threats and discussions surrounding U.S. strategic interests such as Greenland. Newsom had publicly criticized European leaders for what he described as capitulation to Trump’s tactics, positioning himself as a defender of multilateral norms. Bessent rejected that framing, arguing that Newsom lacks standing to lecture others on economic governance.

The Treasury Secretary pointed to California’s worsening fiscal condition as evidence. The state entered 2026 facing a budget deficit exceeding $68 billion, alongside one of the highest homelessness rates in the United States, estimated at roughly 0.44 percent of the population according to federal housing data. For Bessent and other Trump administration officials, these figures represent policy failure driven by progressive governance rather than external economic pressures.

The exchange is particularly notable given Bessent’s own professional history, which includes past ties to Soros Fund Management. Supporters of the administration argue this background strengthens, rather than weakens, his critique by insulating it from claims of ideological bias and grounding it in financial expertise.

Bessent’s remarks reflect a broader posture adopted by the Trump administration in Davos: confrontational, unapologetic, and dismissive of what it views as performative moralizing by political leaders with weak domestic records. By publicly challenging Newsom on the world stage, Bessent signaled that the administration is prepared to directly counter its critics—at home and abroad—using both economic data and rhetorical force.