Gavin Newsom is suing Fox News for defamation over its coverage of a phone call the California Gov. had with President Donald Trump.
In the suit, filed Friday, Newsom says that Fox News had used deceptive edits to claim that the governor had lied in saying that Trump had not called him about deploying National Guard troops during the L.A. protests. He is demanding $787 million in monetary damages, which is about the same amount Fox paid in 2023 to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems.
“No more lies,” Newsom wrote in a post on X Friday. “I’m suing Fox News for $787 million.”
However, per a letter from Newsom’s lawyer, the governor said he will voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit if Fox News retracts its claim that Newsom lied about President Trump not calling him on June 9 and if anchor Jesse Watters and Fox News issue a formal on-air apology.
“If Fox News wants to lie to the American people on Donald Trump’s behalf, it should face consequences — just like it did in the Dominion case,” Newsom said in a statement. “I believe the American people should be able to trust the information they receive from a major news outlet. Until Fox is willing to be truthful, I will keep fighting against their propaganda machine.”
Trump used a federal statute to seize control of the California National Guard earlier this month, as protests broke out about his administration’s crackdown on immigration and the use of ICE agents. Trump has claimed that he had called Newsom about the guards and provided call logs to Fox News, which Newsom claims were manipulated to prove Trump’s claims.
According to the letter, Newsom spoke with Trump on June 7, 2025 at 1:23a.m. Eastern Time for approximately 16 minutes. In that call the two did not discuss the protests in Los Angeles or deloying the National Guard, according to the letter. Newsom says this is the last time the two spoke.
However, on June 10, 2025, a reporter asked President Trump, “When was the last
time you spoke to Governor Newsom?” To which Trump responded: “A day ago. Called
him to tell him, got to do a better job, he’s doing a bad job. Causing a lot of death and a
lot of potential death.”
Newsom then responded to that claim on X saying “There was no call. Not even
a voicemail. Americans should be alarmed that a President deploying Marines onto our
streets doesn’t even know who he’s talking to.”
The letter claims Trump then reached out to Fox News with a call log, which showed the June 7 call, and that Fox News host John Roberts used those logs to state on air that Trump had called Newsom “yesterday or the other day,” which the letter says was intentionally altering the timeline. That evening further anchor Jesse Watters played an edited clip of President Trump’s Oval Office statement and removed the statement that Trump had spoken to him “a day ago,” and then said Newsom had lied and said Trump had never called him.
“It is perhaps unsurprising that a near-octogenarian with a history of delusionary public
statements and unhinged late-night social media screeds might confuse the dates. But
Fox’s decision to cover up for President Trump’s error cannot be so easily dismissed,” the letter reads.
Newsom’s lawsuit and threat letter are below:
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