Now we KNOW the California governor is running for president. He’s suddenly against tax increases.

In October, we reported that California progressives and public employee unions were preparing to place a “2026 Billionaire Tax Act” on the November 2026 ballot. It would impose a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of residents and trusts of $1 billion or more. The top 1% already pay 40% of California’s taxes.

Newsom has raised lots of taxes as governor, but suddenly sounds like a former California governor – Ronald Reagan – in saying this latest confiscatory grab would be too much and accelerate the flight of business from the state.

We suspect that perhaps the real motivation is that Newsom realizes that a soak the rich tax hike makes no sense if it alienates the state’s tech titans he plans to raise boatloads of money from for his presidential run in 2028. He’s had Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt in his corner in the past.

So he’ll wait until AFTER the election to start soaking the rich.