(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) California Governor Gavin Newsom has recently intensified his campaign to portray himself as just an average Joe. But his new book and recent reporting have once again revealed a very different reality.
Critics on X took noticed of a passage in Newsom’s book Young Man in a Hurry, where Newsom wrote that his father, the powerful late judge William Newsom, promised him a new car if he never smoked.
Instead, Newsom wrote in the book that he received a “used” car on lease. What Newsom appeared to have omitted was that the “used” vehicle was a Porsche.
“He once said if I never took up the habit of smoking, he would buy me a new car when I turned sixteen. He even wrote down the promise on a business card I kept,” Newsom reportedly wrote. “I never smoked, but he never came through with the new car, though he did make good on a lease for a used one that I drove to college.”
In his book, Gavin Newsom whines that his dad leased him a used car instead of buying him a new car when he turned 16.
According to a source, that car was a Porsche. pic.twitter.com/zGFOibpErh
— Laura Powell (@LauraPowellEsq) February 28, 2026
One of the critics on X was RealClear journalist Susan Crabtree, who noted that Newsom drove a Porsche around campus and wore a Rolex, citing sources who confirmed the details.
She also previously reported that one former Santa Clara University baseball player’s only memory of Newsom was losing his Rolex outside the dugout.
Crabtree pressed for records from Newsom’s college years through Izzy Gardon, the governor’s taxpayer-funded communications director.
In response, Gardon claimed the Porsche and other related questions “belong in the same category as alien-abduction theories.” Headline USA separately reached out to Gardon for clarification.
Notably, Crabtree and Gardon recently clashed after Crabtree requested evidence of a dyslexia diagnosis. Gardon responded with a vulgar remark, saying, “Respectfully, f**k off.”
Headline USA reached out to determine whether Newsom’s leadership had approved the comment. Gardon instead told this outlet the remark had been approved by Crabtree’s “mother.”
Newsom’s upbringing has become a point of controversy, especially as he positions himself as a potential candidate for president in 2028. In his new book, he described a dual lifestyle.
He proclaimed he grew up with a mother who seemingly struggled to raise him and his two siblings as a single parent, alongside access to wealth through his father’s friendship with the Getty family.
“I’m not trying to be something I’m not,” Newsom claimed in a recent interview, as quoted by Los Angeles Times. “I’m not trying to talk about, you know, ‘I was born in a town called Hope with no running water.’ That’s not what this book is about. But it’s a very different portrayal than the one I think 9 out of 10 people believe.”
