Governor Gavin Newsom is “threatening to commit criminal tax evasion,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday, amid an escalating war of words between California and the Trump administration.

The warning from Bessent came in response to Newsom recently suggesting that his state “cut” off the more than $80 billion “more in taxes than we get back” in response to a CNN report with sources claiming President Donald Trump was preparing a broad cancellation of federal funding for California.

“Governor [Gavin Newsom] is threatening to commit criminal tax evasion. His plan: defraud the American taxpayer and leave California residents on the hook for unpaid federal taxes,” Bessent said in a thread posted on X.

“I am certain most California businesses know that failing to pay taxes owed to the Treasury constitutes tax evasion and have no intention of following the dangerous path Governor [Gavin Newsom] is threatening,” Bessent added. “I would warn state officials, including payroll managers, that federal law attaches personal liability to an ‘attempt to evade or defeat tax.'”

Newsom’s “comments are extremely reckless. Instead of committing criminal tax evasion, Governor Newsom should consider a tax plan for California that follows the Trump Tax Cuts model and reduces the onerous state tax burden to allow families to keep more of their hard-earned money,” Bessent concluded.

Bessent posted the thread as Newsom, a Democrat widely considered a potential candidate for the presidency, clashed with President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over troop deployments to California in an effort to quell violent anti-ICE protests that have taken place in and around Los Angeles over the weekend.

After Hegseth said active-duty Marines at Camp Pendleton would be mobilized to assist National Guardsmen if the chaos persists, Newsom accused the Defense Secretary of exhibiting “deranged behavior” for “threatening to deploy active-duty Marines on American soil against its own citizens.”

In response, Hegseth said on X, “Deranged = allowing your city to burn & law enforcement to be attacked. There is plenty of room for peaceful protest, but ZERO tolerance for attacking federal agents who are doing their job. The National Guard, and Marines if need be, stand with ICE.”

Amid backlash for her support of trans-identifying athletes — and a spat with former NCAA swimmer and Outkick podcast host (“Gaines for Girls”) Riley Gaines — a post from 2017 came back to haunt Olympic gymnast Simone Biles.

“ahhhh good thing guys don’t compete against girls or he’d take all the gold medals !!” Biles said in October of 2017, in response to a post that has since been deleted — but her comment came just days after Chinese gymnast Xio Ruoteng won gold in the men’s all-around competition at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Canada and may have been in reference to that. Biles had not competed there, but two of her Olympic teammates medaled: Morgan Hurd and Jade Carey.

ahhhh good thing guys don’t compete against girls or he’d take all the gold medals !! 🥇 https://t.co/gto13RzC8Y

— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) October 12, 2017

Gaines highlighted that post on Sunday, arguing that it showed Biles was well aware of the obvious advantage biological men have over women when it came to athletic competition.

“Oop don’t you hate it when your past self completely undermines your current nonsensical argument? How has 2025 Simone reconciled with the fact 2017 Simone was a ‘truly sick bully’ by her own standard?” Gaines posted.

Oop don’t you hate it when your past self completely undermines your current nonsensical argument?

How has 2025 Simone reconciled with the fact 2017 Simone was a ‘truly sick bully’ by her own standard? https://t.co/aQjKuNSmMh

— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) June 8, 2025

Biles had picked a fight with Gaines two days prior — after Gaines commented on the fact that a boy had been allowed to lead his school’s girls’ softball team to a Minnesota state AAAA title — and she claimed that Gaines was a “truly sick bully” for calling that out as unfair.

“You’re truly sick, all of this campaigning because you lost a race. Straight up sore loser,” Biles said, making the attacks personal from the start. “You should be uplifting the trans community and perhaps finding a way to make sports inclusive OR creating a new avenue where trans feel safe in sports. Maybe a transgender category IN ALL sports!! But instead… You bully them… One things for sure is no one in sports is safe with you around!!!!!”

Gaines pushed back, saying that neither she nor any other female athlete owed men the chance to take girls’ opportunities away.

In her response, Biles resorted to attacking Gaines’ physical appearance: “bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male.”

bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male @Riley_Gaines_

— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) June 6, 2025