“Governor Newsom, who strikes me as Patrick Bateman meets Sparkle Beach Ken, may be the only Californian who knows less about economics than Kamala Harris.”

That was Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday, delivering a remarkably on-point put-down of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

And the put-down was warranted, given that Newsom was hopping from camera to camera at the conference, painting himself as the leader of the American resistance against the American president, and generally acting the fool.

I always thought Newsom looked like how the Devil’s lawyer would be portrayed in a movie, but a mix of the main villain from “American Psycho” and Barbie’s boyfriend certainly seems spot on.

Aside from Bessent’s barb, Newsom’s presence at Davos—where world leaders and the global elite generally gather to out-smug each other—didn’t do him any favors.

Somehow, in an environment that seems perfectly suited to his persona, Newsom flamed out. And that flameout wasn’t just because his speech, which was clearly intended to be in the style of a post-State of the Union address partisan rebuttal, got canceled.

No, I think the reason is that his newest schtick of being the American lefty memelord who is totally not running for president ran into the larger political forces at play. Newsom clearly wanted to present himself as the champion of the great global “liberal international order” empire fighting those mean nationalistic bullies like Russia and the United States.

But Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered what was........

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