California Governor Gavin Newsom is once again flexing his authoritarian streak, this time by promising to seize every dollar that state residents receive from President Donald Trump’s new Anti-Weaponization Fund.

The governor announced this extraordinary plan during a press event on Wednesday, saying his administration would impose a one hundred percent state tax on anyone who collects from the fund.

“Anyone from California that receives any of those funds,” Newsom said, staring down the cameras.

“We want to tax one hundred percent of those proceeds, and that’s an action the state of California can take. It’s an action we look forward to taking.”

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This jaw-dropping announcement targets the $1.776 billion fund the Justice Department created as part of a settlement tied to Trump and the Internal Revenue Service.

The fund’s supporters say it exists to compensate Americans who were unfairly targeted by overreaching federal agencies, including those who faced politically motivated audits and charges.

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Critics on the left, however, claim that it could line the pockets of Trump’s allies or those entangled in January sixth prosecutions.

Newsom wasted no time parroting that narrative.

In a post on X, he accused the forty fifth president of rewarding criminals and granting billions to violent offenders.

“He pardoned all of those folks that were beating up cops and absolved them, providing them one point seven seven six billion dollars. So not only do you get a pardon, you get rewarded,” he wrote, adding that his proposed tax was necessary.

It was a vintage Newsom move: part self righteousness, part political theater.

The governor’s latest headline grabbing idea comes as he angles for national relevance and murmurs of a twenty twenty eight presidential run grow louder among Democrats desperate for a viable successor to Joe Biden.

Yet as he takes aim at Trump voters, Newsom’s own record of questionable financial management continues to haunt him.

California’s budget outlook remains grim, with a projected two point nine billion dollar shortfall looming for the twenty twenty seven fiscal year.

The once Golden State now bleeds taxpayers to fund bloated bureaucracies while residents flee for freer states like Texas, Florida, and Tennessee.

Instead of addressing the flight of businesses or the mounting homeless crisis, Newsom seems more fixated on scoring political punches against Trump supporters.

Republicans in California wasted no time calling out the hypocrisy.

They reminded voters that Newsom himself created a political “slush fund” in twenty seventeen, when the state spent twenty five million dollars in taxpayer money on a legal defense account to fight Trump administration lawsuits.

California Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones hit the point directly, calling the proposal a “blatant abuse of power” and mocking Newsom’s sudden moral outrage over politically allocated dollars.

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The governor’s self righteous crusade also comes on the heels of other spending scandals.

During the pandemic, his administration funneled billions through no bid contracts to companies tied to political insiders and campaign donors.

A Kaiser Health News investigation documented how these deals raised concerns about oversight and competition, yet Newsom brushed off the criticism as partisan noise.

Meanwhile, California taxpayers continue footing the bill for high priced vanity projects.

The state’s so called high speed rail has ballooned far beyond its original cost estimates, burning through billions with little to show.

Another Newsom backed undertaking, a wildlife bridge that Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy mocked as a “bridge to nowhere,” ran twenty one million dollars over budget.

Yet the governor still claims he needs more money, more taxes, and now even complete seizure of personal funds from political opponents.

Newsom’s habit of using government power to reward friends and punish enemies fits perfectly within the playbook of modern liberal politics.

When Democrats cannot win hearts and minds, they reach for the tax code or the court system. In this case, Newsom’s threat to confiscate money from Trump supporters reveals exactly how far the left in California is willing to go to silence dissent and enforce ideological conformity.

Beyond California, other Democrats are rushing to follow Newsom’s lead.

Lawmakers in New York and Connecticut have already unveiled plans to impose similar one hundred percent levies on proceeds from Trump’s Anti Weaponization Fund.

Apparently, punishing conservatives through weaponized taxation has become the latest fad among blue state politicians.

For all his bluster about “justice,” Newsom’s proposal shines a bright light on the deep authoritarian streak running through modern progressivism.

It is not about fairness or protecting the law. It is about control, vengeance, and political intimidation.

The more Democrats lose influence in places where people still value freedom, the more they lean on coercion and confiscation to maintain their grip on power.

Whether this tax threat ever becomes reality remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: Gavin Newsom just reminded America why so many hardworking Californians are packing up their businesses, selling their homes, and heading for common sense states that still respect personal liberty and the fruits of honest work.

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