California Gov. Gavin Newsom criticized the Trump administration Monday for “doing everything to put America in reverse” and trying “to vandalize California’s leadership” on climate, warning that the country risks losing its competitive edge in the clean energy economy.

The remarks came during his trip to Brazil, where Newsom joined Milken Institute CEO Richard Ditizio in Sao Paulo, speaking out as California fights a legal battle with the federal government over its right to enforce its own clean air and climate rules.

Newsom left California on Friday afternoon to participate in COP30, a United Nations climate conference taking place in Belém, Brazil, where world leaders, governors and investors are gathering to discuss strategies for accelerating the global clean energy transition.

When asked why climate action has been slow to gain broader public and political support, and how to better communicate its economic benefits, Newsom connected the challenge to the lack of federal leadership, warning that the United States risks falling behind other countries in the clean energy economy.

“China gets it,” he said. “America is toast competitively, if we don’t wake up to what the hell they’re doing in this space — on supply chains, how they’re dominating manufacturing, how they’re flooding the zone here, EU, elsewhere, Africa.”

The California governor has promoted his trip as a stark contrast to the Trump administration’s approach to energy policy, which embraces the “drill, baby, drill” slogan and seeks to expand fossil fuel production — including efforts by the president to block California’s authority under the Clean Air Act to set its own vehicle emission standards.

Asserting that California’s landmark green initiatives were built on bipartisan efforts by previous administrations, Newsom said California has been a reliable partner in advancing climate and environmental policy.

“I cannot say that for the United States of America, particularly as it relates to the current occupant in the White House — quite the contrary — but the state of California has been a consistent partner for a half century and will continue to be for decades to come,” Newsom said

The Democratic governor said California has continued to thrive despite tensions with Washington, arguing that in the state, “we punch above our weight” in clean energy investment and innovation in sectors like renewable energy, electric vehicles, and battery storage.

Meanwhile, he also noted that the state is leading in emerging fields like artificial intelligence, which require significant amounts of energy and have drawn criticism from researchers for potentially driving up electricity demand and straining the country’s transition to clean energy.

“I am proud that California dominates in artificial intelligence as well. We have no peers,” he said, adding that he is mindful of the growing energy demands tied to innovation and entrepreneurship and citing California’s streamlined permitting and procurement reforms as evidence of the state’s leadership in balancing technological growth with sustainability.

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