Texas Senator Ted Cruz dismantled California’s leftist Governor Gavin Newsom in a blistering history lesson after Newsom attempted to frame the presence of federalized National Guard troops in his state as some unprecedented act of tyranny.
Newsom — apparently recalling President Trump invoking 10 U.S.C. § 12406 in June 2025 to federalize approximately 4,000 members of the California National Guard over Newsom’s explicit objections — desperately attempted to stir up a narrative of “secret police” and “masked men,” comparing the federal response to Nazi Germany. “I want to remember all those images of masked men, the secret police, something familiar in Germany,” Newsom bloviated.
“Those first images came out of my state. The second-largest city in the United States of America. We saw 4,000 National Guard federalized. First time. We’ve never seen anything like this. And 700 active duty Marines sent — not overseas, but to the second largest city in the United States of America. Militarizing the streets of my city. Masked men. Masked men showing up. Unaccountable.”
The problem for Newsom? History actually happened.
Responding on his “Verdict” podcast, Senator Ted Cruz scorched Newsom’s grasp of the American timeline. “Just like AOC and Whitmer, Newsom is apparently thoroughly historically illiterate,” Cruz stated. “He said we’ve never seen National Guards federalized in the states. I guess his history book does not discuss the civil rights movement; he’s never heard of a president named Dwight D. Eisenhower; he’s never heard of sending the National Guard into Southern states. When Democrats, who refused to desegregate schools, resisted, Eisenhower sent the National Guard in. The pattern is the same; in this instance, you have Democrats who are saying, ‘We refuse to comply with federal immigration law.’ Then you had, in the 50s and 60s, you had Democrats saying, ‘We refuse to comply with civil rights law.’ In both instances, it is lawless Democrats attacking law enforcement. Gavin Newsom is proudly following the tradition of Bull Connor, another Democrat politician.”
When Cruz took to X to reiterate that Newsom is “historically illiterate,” the California Governor — rather than defending his grasp of history — opted for the politics of grievance. Newsom, who has been open about his lifelong struggle with dyslexia, attempted to cast Cruz’s critique as a personal attack on his learning disability. “Ted Cruz calling a dyslexic person illiterate is a new low, even for him,” Newsom whimpered.
Ted Cruz calling a dyslexic person illiterate is a new low, even for him. https://t.co/XC75ybiGKd
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) February 16, 2026
Cruz was having none of it. Firing back on X, the Texas Senator clarified for the Governor that “historically illiterate” refers to a lack of knowledge, not a lack of phonics. “I didn’t say you couldn’t read, you 🤡,” Cruz retorted.
He then dropped the hammer with specific receipts: Executive Order 10730. Cruz detailed how Eisenhower used the 101st Airborne Division to break the blockade imposed by Democratic Governor Orval Faubus, allowing the Little Rock Nine to enter Central High School.
I didn’t say you couldn’t read, you 🤡
I said you were “historically illiterate”…
….because you apparently have no idea that Eisenhower federalized the national guard to stop Dem governors from defying federal law.
Specifically, on September 23, 1957, President Eisenhower… https://t.co/63z3botBKs
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 17, 2026
Newsom’s schooling appears to have elided the chapters on how his own party has spent decades standing on the wrong side of federal law and basic historical fact.
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