The wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom said that President Donald Trump’s firing of Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi was “no surprise” and is part of his wider “war on all women.”
In an Instagram video posted Saturday, Jennifer Siebel Newsom began by setting out that she was “no fan” of Bondi and Noem, who recently became the first Cabinet members of Trump’s second administration to receive the boot.
Bondi was fired as Trump’s Attorney General last week, while Noem was given her marching orders from the Department of Homeland Security last month following a disastrous performance during congressional hearings.
“The conservative women that Trump handpicks who align themselves with an agenda that controls women, restricting our rights, limiting our autonomy… is only in service of men,” said Newsom, who is the founder of a gender rights non-profit.
“There’s a familiar pattern here,” the mom-of-four continued. “Women are brought in, packaged Mar-a-Lago style, and lifted up as long as they commit to wholeheartedly serve the interests of the patriarch at the top.”
Newsom, who chose to be known as California’s “first partner” as opposed to “first lady,” claimed that neither Noem nor Bondi had any true power or job security in their positions because of Trump, and pointed to historic allegations of inappropriate behavior against the president.
“When you align yourself with that value system, with a leader who has publicly devalued women, degraded them, and been found liable of abusing women,” Newsom continued. “Well, guess what? You’re going to be the first to go.”
“Your power is only temporary, and ultimately they will come for you. That’s the unfortunate truth for all women,” Newsom added. “No woman is safe in Trump’s Republican Party unless she has enough wealth or the ability to buy her own job security and safety.”
Newsom concluded her take by summarizing that there is a “war on all women” regardless of their political affiliation.
In response to criticism about firing two women from his Cabinet, the White House has pointed to the president’s comments from a 2025 Women’s History Month event. “I’m also thrilled to say that we have more women in our Cabinet than any Republican president in the history of our country,” Trump said.
Of his original Cabinet and Cabinet-level appointments, one-third were women, according to the Center for American Women and Politics.
Trump announced Bondi’s departure as Justice Department chief on Thursday, where he praised her as a “Great American Patriot and a loyal friend.”
Bondi’s ousting follows bipartisan outrage over her handling of investigations into Jeffrey Epstein and the release of millions of files connected to the late sex offender. Trump appears to have lost confidence in Bondi’s leadership after the scandal blew up into a massive political liability for the president and his allies.
The president has also publicly raged against the Justice Department’s failure to prosecute his political enemies after the president demanded their imprisonment, as cases against former FBI director James Comey and the New York Attorney General Letitia James fell apart in court.
Meanwhile, Noem was ousted from her role as Homeland Security Secretary last month after she claimed Trump had signed off on a multi-million-dollar deportation campaign in which she featured prominently. The president denied ever doing so and swiftly announced he was removing her from the department in a post on Truth Social.
Last week Noem was at the center of another scandal involving her husband, Bryon Noem, after pictures of him cross-dressing were leaked to the Daily Mail, alleging that he engaged in a “bimbofication” fetish as his wife served in Trump’s Cabinet.
