Tom Homan, President Trump’s legendary border czar, held nothing back when he responded to goading comments from California Governor Gavin Newsom, who told Homan, “Come after me” in a belligerent interview in response to the violent anti-ICE riots that broke out in downtown Los Angeles beginning on June 6, 2025.
For context, after several days of ongoing rioting in downtown Los Angeles, President Trump told the press on June 9, 2025, that he was open to the idea of Tom Homan arresting Gov. Newsom and other California officials who had vehemently opposed ICE’s efforts to apprehend illegal immigrant criminals. After Gov. Newsom said he didn’t “give a damn” about getting arrested by Homan, the border czar spoke out, issuing a stern warning.
The back-and-forth started when President Trump was asked about the idea of arresting Gov. Newsom by a reporter during a June 9 press conference. The president responded, “I’d do it if I were Tom.” He added, “Gavin likes the publicity, but I think it would be a great thing.” These comments led conservatives to wonder whether Trump’s border czar really would go after Gov. Newsom.
In response to the speculation that Gov. Newsom would be arrested based on the comments from President Trump, Homan said, “That whole thing’s been taken out of context” in an interview with CBS News on June 9. He added, “They haven’t crossed a line yet … If you cross that line, I don’t care who they are — the governor, the mayor, whatever — and when you commit a crime against ICE officers, we will seek prosecution.”
Importantly, these comments came after Gov. Newsom posted on his personal Instagram account on June 9, telling Homan to “come and get me, tough guy,” saying, “Trump’s border czar is threatening to arrest me for speaking out.” He added, “I don’t give a damn. It won’t stop me from standing up for California.” In a clip attached to the post, Gov. Newsom said, “Come after me. Arrest me. Let’s just get it over with, tough guy.”
Moreover, Homan later responded to Gov. Newsom’s taunting in a Fox News interview, saying, “He’s failed that state. He’s waited two days of that city burning, people getting hurt, officers getting assaulted, before he made any declaration of an unlawful assembly.” Homan added, “He’s late to the game. President Trump isn’t late to the game. Men and women of ICE aren’t late to the game.”
Continuing, Homan defended ICE in the face of criticism from the left, saying, “ICE took a lot of bad people off the street that day. We arrest a sexual predator, arrest a gang member, arrest somebody that had an armed robbery conviction. So, we made L.A. safer. The men and women of ICE and the men and women of Border Patrol made L.A. safer that day.”
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Building on his point, Homan said that while ICE had been working for the benefit of American citizens, “You’re not hearing any of this. All you hear is rhetoric about ICE being racists, about ICE being Nazis and terrorists, and Governor Newsom feeds that.”
Watch Homan’s comments on Fox:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video