After Gavin Newsom pushed back on Donald Trump’s claim that the two had a phone call “a day ago” about the ongoing protests in Los Angeles, Fox News published what it called “receipts” from the president that supposedly proved that the California governor was “lying.”
Instead, the call log that Trump handed over to Fox News anchor John Roberts Tuesday showed that Newsom was right all along. That didn’t seem to matter to the right-wing network, though, as multiple hosts and reporters still dishonestly spun for the president despite their “receipt” supporting the governor’s claim.
Speaking to reporters at the Oval Office on Tuesday afternoon, the president was asked when he last spoke to the governor, who is currently suing the administration for federally deploying the National Guard to LA in response to the demonstrations over Trump’s immigration raids.
“A day ago,” the president responded. “Called him up to tell him, got to do a better job, he's doing a bad job. Causing a lot of death and a lot of potential death.”
Captioning a clip of Trump’s remarks, Newsom immediately disputed the president in a social media post. “There was no call. Not even a voicemail,” the governor wrote. “Americans should be alarmed that a President deploying the Marines onto our streets doesn’t even know who he’s talking to.”
Following Newsom’s denial that a call had taken place within the past day, Trump quickly called up Roberts and told him that the governor was lying. The Fox News anchor then posted on X the president’s comments as well as a screenshot of Trump’s phone showing the latest call activity with Newsom.
“President Trump just contacted me from Air Force 1 to say this: ‘First call was not picked up. Second call, Gavin picked up, we spoke for 16 minutes. I told him to, essentially, ‘get his a** in gear,’ and stop the riots, which were out of control. More than anything else, this shows what a liar he is - Said I never called. Here is the evidence,’” Roberts tweeted.
The screenshot on the president’s phone log, meanwhile, showed two calls made to Newsom, one of which was not picked up and the other lasting for over 16 minutes. Both of these calls took place at 1:23 a.m. ET on June 7, which would have been late Friday night in California - days earlier then Trump claimed in the Oval Office.
Newsom had already publicly discussed that call with multiple reporters in recent days, including in an interview with NBC News that featured the governor daring the administration to “come get me” after Trump’s border czar threatened to arrest him. The governor told NBC News on Sunday that he had a “very decent conversation” with Trump late Friday night that lasted roughly 20 minutes, adding that the president never brought up the prospect of mobilizing the National Guard.
While the call log from the president clearly supported Newsom’s timeline, Roberts framed the matter as the president bringing the “receipts” to disprove the governor during an on-air report. At the same time, he massaged the president’s Oval Office remarks to give Trump a bit more cover.
“After Trump said in the noon hour in the Oval Office that he called him yesterday or the other day, Gavin Newsom tweeted the following: ‘There was no call. Not even a voicemail. Americans should be alarmed that a President deploying the Marines onto our streets doesn’t even know who he’s talking to,’” Roberts stated, suggesting the president said something he never uttered.
Going through the president’s screenshot and comments to him, Roberts conceded that this showed the call happened on June 7 and that it would have been late Friday night where the governor was located. Still, the segment was framed as the president catching Newsom in a lie.
“We’re waiting to see if Gov. Newsom has a response to the president’s – essentially what he has there is the receipts for what he says is the call that was made,” co-anchor Molly Line declared, prompting Roberts to add: “It’s all about the receipts!”
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That Fox News segment was quickly picked up by MAGA media personality Charlie Kirk, who tweeted that it was “gold” because it revealed that Trump had dropped “the receipts on his call with Gavin Newsom.” The governor, however, promptly pushed back.
“If only he had shown the right ones... Trump doesn’t even know what day it is,” he posted on X.
Meanwhile, in response to Roberts’ initial tweet of the president’s screenshot, Newsom’s press office flatly pointed out that “this call was from 3 days ago.”
Despite it being clear at this point that Trump had not refuted Newsom’s claim that a call did not take place the previous day, the network continued to frame the president’s comments and phone log as proof to the contrary.
“Trump brings receipts he called Newsom amid LA riots as California gov claims there wasn't 'even a voicemail,’” the headline read of Fox News’ digital story on the back-and-forth, which was co-bylined by Roberts.
While the digital story includes comments from Newsom and his press office pointing out that the governor was “clearly” responding to Trump’s “comment this morning of ‘a day ago,’” the report largely revolves around how the president “hit back” at the governor’s “claims that the president did not recently call him.”
The network’s senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy, in multiple reports on Fox News and its sister network Fox Business, essentially just pretended that the disagreement wasn’t over when the president last called Newsom, but rather if Trump had ever phoned him.
“Newsom then claimed that there was no call, not even a voicemail,” Doocy said on Special Report after airing a clip of Trump’s Oval Office comments. “A screenshot of an iPhone call log to Fox News’ John Roberts shows two calls from the president to Newsom on Saturday. One lasted for 16 minutes!”
With the network’s “straight news” division laying the groundwork, the conservative cable giant’s pro-Trump opinion hosts were then apparently given free rein to get even more deceptive with their own spin.
During his primetime show Tuesday night, Jesse Watters – who had already asserted on The Five hours earlier that Newsom was “lying” because he “can’t control the narrative” – presented an edited clip of Trump’s Oval Office remarks that completely excised the president’s assertion that it was “a day ago” that he called the governor.
“Newsom responded, and he said there wasn’t a phone call. He said Trump never called him. Not even a voicemail, he said,” Watters proclaimed after airing the edited video.
“But John Roberts got Trump’s call logs, and it shows Trump called him late Friday night and they talked for 16 minutes,” the MAGA host added. “Why would Newsom lie and claim Trump never called him? Why would he do that?!”
The president, in the end, made sure to reference his text to Roberts when he was asked on Tuesday night about Newsom disputing his claim that the two had talked on Monday.
“Gov. Newsom says he did not speak to you a day ago, as you said in the Oval Office earlier. What’s your response to that?” a reporter wondered after Trump returned from his Fort Bragg speech.
“It wasn't a day ago, a little longer than that, and I presented the phone conversation to Fox News’ John Roberts and Molly Line at Fox News, because they were the ones that said it,” Trump responded. “And we actually spent 16 point something minutes on the phone. And I told him, he's got to get his act together. …. We had a pleasant conversation. …. I'm sure you all saw it. You saw them, yeah? But why would you ask me that question if you saw it?”
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