California Governor Gavin Newsom tore into the Trump administration on Saturday, accusing the White House of leaning on the military to conduct an “absurd show of force” through a planned exercise to fire live artillery rounds over the busy I-5 highway as part of an event connected to the military’s 250th anniversary.
“The president is putting his ego over responsibility with this disregard for public safety,” Newsom said in a statement. “Firing live rounds over a busy highway isn’t just wrong — it’s dangerous. Using our military to intimidate people you disagree with isn’t strength — it’s reckless, it’s disrespectful, and it’s beneath the office he holds.”
State officials, who temporarily closed I-5 near the Camp Pendleton base where the exercise was taking place, alleged that the Marine Corps confirmed Thursday that the exercise would be conducted on a training range without firing over the freeway.
Newsom’s office claims that a day later, it got word the state should warn passersby of “overhead fire in progress,” with federal officials confirming a live fire exercise was set for Saturday afternoon.
“Due to extreme life safety risk and distraction to drivers, including sudden unexpected and loud explosions, a section of I-5 will be closed for a period on Saturday,” Newsom’s office said.
The White House and the Marine Corps insist the exercise was safe and that a highway closure was unnecessary.
“He closed the highway,” the White House wrote on X. “Not only did nobody at the White House or the Marines ask him to do so, the Marines repeatedly said there are no public safety concerns with today’s exercises.”
A Marine Corps spokesperson told The Los Angeles Times that “M777 artillery pieces have historically been fired during routine training from land-based artillery firing points west of the I-5 into impact areas east of the interstate within existing safety protocols and without the need to close the route.”
“This is an established and safe practice,” the spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for Vice President JD Vance, who was present at the firing exercise, accused Newsom of politicizing the event.
The firing exercise, which was planned to showcase the Marine Corps’s amphibious capabilities, was scheduled as millions of protesters participated in nationwide No Kings protests that the administration has repeatedly criticized.
Thousands of demonstrators turned out for more than a dozen protests across southern California.
“Law and order? This is chaos and confusion,” Newsom’s office said of the military demonstrations.
The war of words between Newsom and the White House follows months of public sparring.
Newsom, a rumored 2028 presidential hopeful, has sued the Trump administration multiple times over moves like sending the National Guard to Los Angeles, while adopting a brash, Trump-style posture on social media.
