Gavin Newsom muses on Kimberly Guilfoyle dating Donald Trump Jr.
Like many, BuzzFeed News editor-in-chief Ben Smith was curious about what California Gov. Gavin Newsom thinks about his ex-wife, Kimberly Guilfoyle, dating Donald Trump Jr.
So, in an interview that airs Friday night on Profile, BuzzFeed’s Facebook series, Smith asked Newsom — a Democrat — whether the topic of Trump Jr.’s new girlfriend ever comes up when he’s on the phone with President Donald Trump talking official business.
Newsom tried to be diplomatic in his response, Page Six reported.
“We may have had a private moment on that conversation, which in and of itself, makes life just interesting,” the governor said. When pressed further, he repeated: “Life’s interesting.”
Indeed it is.
Newsom and Trump recently made headlines together after the president claimed the governor called him “one of the smartest people I’ve ever met.”
Trump made the claim during his hourslong speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual gathering of conservative movers and shakers, the Sacramento Bee reported. Trump said he received this compliment from Newsom when the governor called to express his gratitude for his visit to Paradise, in Butte County, following last year’s deadly Camp Fire.
But in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Newsom denied he ever made that characterization to the president, the Bee reported.
“The people in those communities were grateful to him, I was grateful to him … somehow that got conflated,” Newsom said. But he added, “I do want to work with him.”
“You can’t make this up... that’s not what I said.”
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) March 12, 2019
California Gov. @GavinNewsom says Pres. Trump mischaracterized a phone call they shared, suggesting he did not call Trump “one of the smartest people I’ve ever met,” as Trump publicly claimed. pic.twitter.com/PzlAhqzP8f
As for Newsom’s ties to Guilfoyle, they were married from 2001 to 2006 when he was the progressive mayor of San Francisco and a rising star in state and national Democratic politics.
After they divorced, the telegenic Guilfoyle, a former San Francisco prosecutor, headed to New York to first become a legal analyst and then a popular TV personality for right-leaning Fox News. She left Fox News this past summer, shortly after she and Trump Jr., 41, went public with their romance. She also became vice chairwoman of the pro-Trump SuperPAC America First Action.
With Trump Jr., Guilfoyle has clearly found her ideological soulmate and become a fierce supporter of the president’s MAGA policies. Guilfoyle also has become almost a member of the Trump family, joining the president and first lady Melania Trump at White House holiday celebrations.
More recently, Guilfoyle celebrated turning 50 with a weekend at Mar-a-Lago and by dining out with Trump Jr., his brother Eric, his sister-in-law Lara and 20 other people at an upscale New York restaurant, Page Six reported.
In interviews, Guilfoyle has been more forthcoming than Newsom about their marriage, divorce and political differences.
Guilfoyle has said she and Newsom remain friends, emphasizing that she always was a Republican, even when she was the first lady of San Francisco.
In an interview in July with the Breitbart Daily News podcast, Guilfoyle laughingly despaired how Newsom’s politics have become more “far left” since when they were married. Guilfoyle said she totally disagrees with Newsom’s “very liberal policies” on gun control and his “aggressive” stance against her boyfriend’s father and his positions on immigration.
“So obviously, (Newsom) wasn’t the best match for me, but I think I got it right this time,” she said.
But there are apparent similarities between Newsom and Trump Jr. that could explain Guilfoyle’s attraction to both men.
First and foremost, the two men share a penchant for a slicked-back hair-do.
But there’s also the idea that Trump Jr. is seen as a rising political star in his own way, “the No. 1 up-and-coming political figure on the right,” Guilfoyle said in the Breitbart interview.
While critics see Trump Jr. as entitled, combative, desperate for his father’s approval and possibly complicit in alleged crimes related to his father’s campaign and business dealings, Guilfoyle has characterized her boyfriend as a patriot and as an “authentic” leader of a new political movement.
While campaigning with Trump Jr., Guilfoyle told Breitbart, she has seen her boyfriend “actually” speak to people and listen “for a change.” She said, “He’s at their level and is listening to them, and he’s connecting, and you can see it’s becoming quite a movement across the country.”
