Vance on Watergate, Newsom on Tax, Supreme Court Guns TPS

In a day of major political developments, Vice President JD Vance sparked controversy by suggesting the Watergate scandal would be a minor news story in today’s media environment, while California Governor Gavin Newsom called for a national billionaires tax. The Supreme Court, meanwhile, delivered two significant 6-3 rulings on gun ownership restrictions and immigration policy.

Vance’s Watergate Comments

Speaking at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, California, on Thursday, Vice President Vance said that the Watergate scandal — which forced Nixon to resign in 1974 — would barely register in today’s fragmented media landscape. “If Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be like a 12-hour news story. The idea that it would have taken down a presidency is crazy,” Vance said, according to the Associated Press.

Vance, who was promoting his new book “Communion,” drew parallels between Nixon and President Donald Trump, arguing that both were targeted by what he called “deep state” forces. “If you look at the story of how the deep state took down Richard Nixon, it’s not all that different from what the same groups of people, the same institutions tried to do to Donald Trump in the first Trump administration,” he said.

The vice president also noted his own similarities with Nixon, describing himself as a “young senator, vice president, writes some bestselling books, is hated by the media” — adding, “It kind of sounds like JD Vance. I’ve always liked Richard Nixon.” He called Nixon’s legacy “enjoying a bit of a renaissance” and described the 37th president as a “political genius,” as The Guardian reported.

Newsom’s National Billionaires Tax

On Friday, California Governor Gavin Newsom published a Substack post calling for a national “billionaires tax,” positioning himself as a populist economic reformer ahead of a widely expected 2028 presidential run. The proposal comes as Newsom simultaneously fights a state-level ballot measure — the California Billionaire Tax Act — which would levy a one-time 5% tax on residents worth more than $1 billion.

Newsom argued that a state-level approach is ineffective because wealthy individuals can easily relocate. “You may not be able to pick up and move to Texas or Florida to shelter your income from taxation, but I promise you that billionaires can, and do,” he wrote. “Wealth is movable, and it shops for the state with the lowest taxes. The fight belongs at the federal level.”

His national proposal includes a minimum tax on net worth above $100 million, a ban on borrowing against stock portfolios tax-free, new inheritance tax rules, raising corporate tax rates to pre-Trump levels, and a US government ownership stake in AI companies. He also proposed a national public equity fund to ensure “every American owns a stake in the future being built by AI.”

“It’s time for an economic reset for America,” Newsom wrote.

The California ballot measure, backed by the Service Employees International Union, has gathered over 1.55 million signatures. Google co-founder Larry Page is among the billionaires who have threatened to leave the state.

Supreme Court Rulings

The Supreme Court issued two consequential rulings on Thursday, both decided along ideological lines.

In the first case, the court ruled that states cannot require gun owners to obtain permission from property owners before bringing firearms onto their land. Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the 6-3 conservative majority, said such “vampire laws” — named after Bram Stoker’s Dracula, who cannot enter a home without an invitation — “hobbles what the Second Amendment protects: the right of Americans to carry arms for self-defense.” The decision affects five states: Hawaii, California, Maryland, New York, and New Jersey. It is the latest in a series of cases stemming from the court’s landmark 2022 decision that created a new historical test for gun regulations.

In the second case, the court allowed the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians and Syrians, a program that protects 1.3 million people from 17 countries. Writing for the same 6-3 majority, Justice Alito rejected arguments that President Trump’s past comments about Haiti and African nations showed the termination was racially motivated, saying they were “insufficient to show that the termination was based on race.”

Justice Elena Kagan, in a sharp dissent, called Trump’s comments “so repellent and racially inflected that the majority declines to put them in print.” The ruling drew fierce reactions: NAACP President Derrick Johnson called it “a devastating betrayal of Haitian families,” while Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller celebrated it as “a victory 10 years in the making.”

Analysis and Implications

The day’s events highlight the deepening political polarization in the United States. Vance’s comments normalize the idea that major scandals no longer carry political consequences, while Newsom’s proposals signal a leftward shift on economic policy that could define the 2028 Democratic primary. The Supreme Court’s twin rulings underscore the enduring power of the 6-3 conservative majority to reshape American law on guns and immigration.

As both Vance and Newsom position themselves for a potential 2028 presidential contest, their divergent strategies — one embracing the Trumpian narrative of institutional warfare, the other championing economic populism — offer a preview of the battle lines to come.