DAVOS, Switzerland — California Governor Gavin Newsom predicted Wednesday that market shockwaves could force U.S. President Donald Trump to back down from his geopolitically shattering threats to seize Greenland from Denmark.

Speaking exclusively to POLITICO in Davos ahead of Trump’s closely watched speech Wednesday, Newsom suggested that “what’s not in his teleprompter will be the most interesting. And that will be shaped by what he sees on Pravda — sorry, on Fox — on the flight over.”

Newsom said he suspects that Trump will be mollifying in tone with the Europeans over Greenland, because of slumping stock markets.

“The only thing I think that can move Trump, and hopefully he doesn’t double down on stupid today, are the markets,” Newsom said, pointing to Trump softening his position on global tariffs after last April’s “Liberation Day” announcement rattled markets.

“Remember what happens on the markets impacts every single person he brings over on the plane — Howard Lutnick’s portfolio, Steve Witkoff’s and Trump’s own portfolio. That’s what matters for him,” Newsom said.

Trump has spent the first half of January ratcheting up his threats to seize the massive Arctic island — a self-ruling Danish territory — which would stretch eight decades of the transatlantic relationship to breaking point. European leaders are scrambling to find a plan that would induce Trump to back down, after he announced last weekend he would impose tariffs on countries trying to block him from snagging Greenland.

Newsom said he wasn’t in Davos to position himself as the resistance leader to Trump, although he is a widely discussed contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028.

“I’m here to express a different point of view. He’s a historic president. But he’s historically unpopular, and people need to understand that here,” Newsom said. “His policies are undeniably unpopular across the political spectrum in America. Even by his own standards, he’s more unpopular today than he was even in the first term.”

‘War with California’

During his chat with POLITICO, conducted in the Davos Congress Centre, Newsom expanded on his rocky relationship with Trump, with whom he once had a positive relationship.

“That’s what happens when he starts calling you names like we are in seventh grade, in my case ‘Newscum’. It doesn’t help,” the California governor said.

“But he’s been at war with California,” he added. “We had a great relationship during COVID, which was interesting. No other Democratic governor could lay claim to that. But the federalization of the National Guard and his sending 700 active duty Marines to Los Angeles crossed the line.”

Newsom said that their relationship started to deteriorate because of Trump’s refusal to sign the paperwork for disaster aid for “American people who happen to live in my state to cope with the wildfires a year ago. He hasn’t done a damn thing for LA.”

The governor added that the Golden State has become “the center of all of Trump’s attention because of quantum computing and AI and also because many of his own personal relationships and those of his cabinet members and family members involve California.”