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Speaker Mike Johnson Says Gavin Newsom Should Be 'Tarred And Feathered'

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Tuesday that California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) should be “tarred and feathered” for opposing President Donald Trump’s deployment of troops in his state.

“I’m not going to give you legal analysis on whether Gavin Newsom should be arrested,” Johnson said Tuesday at a news conference, “but he ought to be tarred and feathered, I’ll say that.”

Newsom has protested Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops and Marines to suppress immigrants’ rights protests in California, calling the president’s action “purposefully inflammatory.”

On Monday, Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit against Trump to stop the deployments. It’s the first time in roughly 60 years a president has called in the National Guard to a state without the governor’s consent.

On Sunday, Trump called for Newsom’s arrest, saying, “Officials who stand in the way of law and order, yeah, they will face judges.”

Newsom said Trump’s words represented “a day I hoped I would never see in America.”

“I don’t care if you’re a Democrat or a Republican. This is a line we cannot cross as a nation — this is an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism,” the Democratic governor said.

During Tuesday’s news conference, Johnson echoed Trump and said that Newsom is “standing in the way” of the administration carrying out federal law.

“He is applauding the bad guys and standing in the way of the good guys,” Johnson said.

He also called Newsom’s lawsuit a “joke” and said told the Democrat, “Do your job. Stop working on your rebranding and be a governor.”

Democratic National Convention Chair Ken Martin said in a statement that Johnson is following Trump’s lead by “inciting violence” against Newsom.

“Trump is disrespecting the military by using them as political pawns to suppress who he sees as his political opponents — including thousands of ordinary Americans who are horrified by Trump’s inhumane immigration enforcement that stokes fear, rips families apart, and pulls U.S. citizens into his dragnet,” Martin said.

“Johnson’s comments today are dangerous and make clear that for Republicans, this has everything to do with inciting fear and violence — and nothing to do with law and order.”