Steve Hilton didn’t mince words on National Report when he ripped into Gov. Gavin Newsom for jetting off to the United Nations climate summit while California burns, collapses under homelessness and suffers sky‑high energy bills. Hilton’s message was simple and furious: a governor who runs off to Brazil for virtue‑signaling photo ops while ordinary Californians struggle is a governor out of touch with the people who pay his bills.
Newsom did indeed attend COP30 in Belém, Brazil, where he took the stage to lecture about climate leadership and slam the federal administration for staying away. The optics could not have been worse: the state’s top executive preaching global solutions from a podium thousands of miles from the communities he is supposed to serve.
Conservative voters smell hypocrisy when Sacramento’s mansion sits safe and sound while Main Street Californians pay the price for Newsom’s green experiment — higher electricity bills and erratic energy policy that have driven costs through the roof. The state’s energy policies and mandates have real consequences for families and small businesses, and conservatives are right to ask why the governor is more interested in grandstanding at the UN than in delivering affordable, reliable power at home.
Let’s be blunt: this is about political theater and national ambition, not problem solving. Steve Hilton and other critics point out that Newsom’s out‑of‑state globe‑trotting reads like a campaign trail for higher office, not the focused stewardship called for after devastating wildfires and months‑long recovery efforts back home. Californians want a governor who stays and fixes the mess, not one who uses international stages to burnish his résumé.
The left’s climate catechism conveniently ignores accountability. While Newsom scolds fossil fuels at the UN, his administration’s policies are directly tied to higher consumer energy prices and fractured grid reliability — results that hit the poorest Californians hardest. Conservatives will keep hammering the point: environmental virtue is meaningless when it translates into unaffordable bills, lost jobs and empty storefronts.
Hilton’s broader critique is correct in spirit: the people of California deserve a leader who prioritizes their safety, their roofs, their utility bills and their streets over photo ops with global bureaucrats. There’s a growing appetite among voters for candidates who will stop the performative politics and start delivering real accountability, law and order, and common‑sense energy policy.
If conservatives want to win in 2026, they must seize this moment to hold Newsom to account — loudly, relentlessly, and with concrete alternatives that put Californians first. Steve Hilton’s blistering rebuke is more than soundbite; it is a rallying cry for citizens tired of elites who travel the world while their own neighborhoods fall apart. The choice is clear: real leadership at home, or empty virtue abroad.
