Gavin Newsom Warns Trump May 'Rig' The 2028 US Election, Reveals Potential Successors Including Son Barron

The 2028 US presidential election is still four years away, yet the political elite are already engaged in a furious shadow war—and a leading Democratic contender has pressed the panic button. In an extraordinary public warning, California Governor Gavin Newsom, widely considered a prime candidate for the next cycle, has suggested that the next contest could be deliberately 'rigged' from the start.

His target is not the ageing, recently defeated former president himself, but the enduring mechanism of the MAGA movement and the young political stars being groomed to inherit its immense power.

Newsom's fears reveal the deep anxiety currently festering within the Democratic Party: that Donald Trump, despite his electoral defeat, remains capable of subverting the democratic process long after he has left the White House.

Speaking on The Jack Cocchiarella Show, Newsom shared his explosive concerns that the next election could be engineered, while simultaneously attempting to minimise the immediate threat posed by the former leader's personal ambitions.

He revealed that he is no longer preoccupied with the idea of the Republican political lightning rod threatening to run for a third term, citing the two-term limit formally established by the Twenty-Second Amendment to the Constitution.

'His regime is going to be measured not in decades, but in years', Newsom stated, adding the pointed relief, 'And that's comforting.'

However, this brief moment of optimism was quickly eclipsed by a dire forecast of what comes next. Newsom's focus has shifted entirely to the question of succession—specifically, how Trump intends to finagle his chosen heir into the highest office in the land, suggesting a coordinated attempt to manipulate the electoral landscape for whoever Trump decides to endorse.

For the California Governor, the threat is moving from a single figure to an entire infrastructure of political machination designed to guarantee MAGA remains in power.

The Proxy War: Gavin Newsom and Donald Trump's 2028 Battle Lines

The significance of Newsom's remarks is clear: he is signalling that the defining political battleground of the next cycle will not be ideological, but one of electoral integrity. By framing the coming contest as one that could be 'rigged,' Newsom is establishing a clear, aggressive narrative aimed squarely at the former President's ongoing influence and his network of political allies.

He wasn't vague about the names he sees as the primary inheritors of the MAGA movement, issuing a direct alert to his party and the public. 'That's why we have to be mindful of JD Vance. And we have to be mindful that they could try to rig that election for whoever he decides', Newsom insisted.

The naming of Senator J.D. Vance—the Republican from Ohio, a prominent conservative intellectual, and a close ally of the former President—is particularly notable.

Newsom didn't stop at Vance, though, throwing out a whole list of potential running mates and successors that he fears could be backed by the former President's machine.

'Is it Vance-(Marco) Rubio, Rubio-Vance? Is it his son? Is it, you know, daughter? I mean, I'm serious,' he said, before working in one joke about the former First Family: 'I mean, which member of the family is it? Barron?' As US law dictates a minimum presidential age of 35, there is, of course, no real need to worry about Barron Trump, who is only 19 and decades away from meeting the constitutional requirements.

The Lingering Question: Why Gavin Newsom and Donald Trump Cannot Quit Each Other

Even while focusing on the proxies, Newsom also addressed the possibility that the former President is still contemplating another run, despite the constitutional limit. Speaking at a Sacramento summit hosted by Politico back in August, Newsom had already dismissed the idea that the former President would ever willingly participate in a fair fight.

'I don't think Donald Trump wants another election,' Newsom said during that live interview. 'This guy doesn't believe in free, fair elections.'

Yet, the California Governor is acutely aware that the former President's need for the political spotlight—and potentially the protection that power offers—never fades. The fact that Newsom claimed he has 'Trump 2028' hats sent to him by the former President's 'rabid fanbase' underscores the perpetual state of agitation within US politics.

'You think he's joking about 2028?' Newsom asked the audience. He then pointed to one of the most famous, controversial expenditures from the former President's White House tenure as proof of his mindset.

'Who spends $200million on a ballroom at their home and then leaves the house?' Newsom asked, referring to the delayed and pricy construction of a massive state ballroom off the East Wing of the White House. The Governor delivered a powerful, concise summation of the threat as he sees it: 'The rule of law is being replaced by the rule of Don.'

By raising the spectre of a 'rigged' election so early, Newsom is attempting to inoculate voters against potential future claims of fraud from the right, while simultaneously positioning himself as the most aggressive defender of American democratic norms against the persistent menace of Trumpism.

The battle for 2028 has officially begun, and it is less about policy differences than it is about the fundamental structure of democracy itself.

The battle for 2028 is not waiting for the next calendar year; it has already begun, and Governor Newsom's dire warning frames the contest less as a policy debate and more as a fight for the integrity of US democracy itself.

By naming potential successors and explicitly suggesting a plan to 'rig' the election for a chosen successor, he is sounding a clear alarm about the enduring menace of Trumpism.