Agency Report
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is set to meet with California Governor Gavin Newsom at a major international security summit in Munich later this week, government sources said.
The “brief encounter” on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference that kicks off on Friday might irk President Donald Trump, as Newsom is considered one of the US leader’s sharpest critics in the Democratic Party.
Newsom is one of three top Democrats attending the conference alongside Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
Merz is set to open the conference with a key note speech on changing trans-Atlantic relations, followed by a number of bilateral meetings, including with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who will lead the Trump administration’s delegation.
As governor of California, Newsom leads the most populous and economically powerful US state. He’s gained nationwide attention for skewering Trump on social media, often mimicking the president’s over-the-top style, including all-caps posts and multiple exclamation points.
He has said he will decide after the congressional elections in November whether to seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028.
Newsom drew attention at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, where he criticized Trump and accused European leaders of taking what he described as a grovelling approach to the president’s disruptive, deal-driven diplomacy. “It’s time to buck up, it’s time to get serious and stop being complicit,” Newsom said.
He is due to appear at the Munich conference in a session focused on climate policy on Saturday, the same day Rubio is scheduled to speak.
