California Governor Gavin Newsom might pride himself on being the media’s favorite pretty face, but what came out of his mouth this week could make a used car salesman blush.
In a video posted to X, Newsom proudly declared [1] that under his leadership, California’s economy expanded from three trillion dollars to over four trillion dollars, a supposed forty percent surge that he claims no other state can touch. On its surface, that might sound impressive.
But as usual with Newsom, the devil is buried under layers of selective math and political spin.
The part the governor forgot to mention is that he conveniently left out inflation from his calculation.
When you factor in the inflation that exploded during Joe Biden’s presidency, Newsom’s so-called economic miracle becomes a lot less miraculous.
In “real dollars,” California’s growth was only about 17.6 percent since 2019, which is actually slightly behind the national average of 17.7 percent.
In other words, the “California boom” is little more than a talking point propped up by fuzzy accounting.
Meanwhile, those “less sophisticated” states the governor likes to sneer at, such as Texas and Florida, would leave California eating their dust if measured with the same phony math standard Newsom used for himself.
Texas’ growth rate under his metric would look like a roaring 55.7 percent, while Florida’s would soar past 65 percent.
If Ron DeSantis tossed his integrity aside and used Newsom’s creative calculator, he could brag about turning the Sunshine State into an economic powerhouse overnight.
Newsom’s video, now circulating on social media, perfectly captures his usual mix of confidence and cluelessness.
With slicked-back hair and the smirk of a man too enamored with his own reflection, he boldly declared, “We have no peers.”
In one sense, that is true.
Nobody lies with more style or delivers economic distortion with such conviction. Even hardened viewers struggled to watch the entire 26-second clip without rolling their eyes.
This is the same governor who presides over a state bleeding residents, businesses, and tax dollars faster than any other in the union.
Tens of thousands of Californians are trading $7 lattes and tent cities for clean streets and sane tax rates in Texas, Florida, and other freedom-friendly states.
You would think a man watching his people flee would have the humility to admit he might be doing something wrong.
But humility and Newsom have never shared the same room.
Let us remember that inflation has ravaged the country during the Biden years..
Prices have gone up around 30 percent across nearly every category, and the dollar has lost around a quarter of its value.
When Newsom brags about growth, he is comparing today’s devalued dollars to pre-inflation dollars as if they mean the same thing.
WATCH:
His numbers are as inflated as the gas prices Californians keep paying thanks to his radical energy policies.
The truth is simple enough that even one of the governor’s social media interns could understand it if their paycheck didn’t depend on pretending not to.
California’s nominal growth looks bigger only because the price of everything skyrocketed.
When you remove the inflationary fluff, the supposed golden economic success paint chips away to reveal a dull gray reality.
California grew, but just barely, and certainly not enough to justify the governor’s grandstanding.
Economists know the difference between “nominal” and “real” growth.
Politicians like Newsom count on the public not to.
They thrive on buzzwords, talking points, and selective data because they cannot afford honest comparisons.
California’s performance under his leadership has been mediocre at best, masked by the illusion of progress generated by an inflated economy.
What makes this lie particularly rich is that it comes from the same man who claims to be fighting inequality while regulating the middle class into extinction.
He presides over a state that once symbolized the American dream and has since turned into a grinding machine of taxes, homelessness, and bureaucratic misery.
Yet, in his delusional marketing campaign, he wants to convince the nation that he has built an unstoppable economic engine.
The only unstoppable thing about California these days is the exodus of taxpayers.
Businesses keep packing up for friendlier states, homeowners keep selling and fleeing, and even Hollywood has shifted big-budget projects to the South and Midwest.
The people voting with their feet are not fooled by slick math presentations and cherry-picked metrics.
So no, this is not Gavin Newsom’s biggest lie ever. It is simply his latest.
The man has built a career on projection and optics while his state crumbles beneath high costs and low trust.
When cornered, he always finds a new way to spin disaster into an accomplishment. But every time inflation creeps higher, every time another store closes in San Francisco, and every time another family moves out, the reality undercuts his narrative.
There is only one thing growing faster than California’s nominal GDP, and that is Gavin Newsom’s ego.
The rest of America is watching what unchecked Democratic leadership does to prosperity, and they are wise to it.
Wherever the spin stops, the truth is waiting, and this time, Newsom’s numbers do not lie—they just conceal a much uglier picture.