Vogue’s Spring 2026 issue delivered a fawning puff piece extolling the virtues of Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) — complete with a photo spread from celebrity-favorite photographer Annie Leibovitz — just as he prepares to wrap up his final term as governor and plan his next move.

Newsom has long been considered a heavy favorite to win the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028 — and if he does choose to throw his hat into the ring, his February 1 Vogue profile (written by Maya Singer) could easily be considered an in-kind donation to his campaign.

Indeed, Singer refers to Newsom as “presidential” in her first paragraph. Of course, that came only after she describes him as “embarrassingly handsome.”

Let’s get this out of the way: He is embarrassingly handsome, his hair seasoned with silver, at ease with his own eminence as he delivers his final State of the State address.

And the fawning continues. Paragraph two begins: “It must drive Trump nuts. Newsom: lithe, ardent, energetic, a glimmer of optimism in his eye; Kennedy-esque. Add to that his stunning wife and four adorable kids, and the executive strut of a self-made millionaire who has spent the past seven years at the helm of a state big, complex, and rich enough to be a nation of its own.”

Singer continued in that same vein, observing the differences between her previous Zoom meetings with the California politician and the moment she sat down with him in person.

As he spoke, late-summer sun slanted in through the windows, bathing Newsom in an oh so California magic-hour glow. I’d prepared for this sit-down by consuming the spectacle of Gavin Newsom—tweets, TV hits, interviews, umpteen episodes of his podcast, This Is Gavin Newsom—and was having a hard time taking in the man. His actual molecular reality. Immaculate. Fantastic at gab, like a windup doll.

Her words painted a picture — not just of Newsom, but also of a writer smitten by the subject of her piece.

“Newsom’s lanky frame was folded onto a sofa a bit too low-slung for him. This made him lean back—away from me,” Singer wrote, musing, “Or it could be that his body language had nothing to do with ergonomics and is a function of Newsom’s quality of being at once gregarious and aloof.”

Singer spoke with Newsom about his decision to start a podcast — “This is Gavin Newsom” — and to kick it off with a conversation with the late Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

“My purpose in having Charlie on wasn’t to discuss his politics. I don’t share his politics. I don’t like the way he talked down to people. I don’t like what he said about the gay community and minorities,” Newsom said, claiming that his purpose had been centered on finding out what Kirk was doing to reach so many people — young men, in particular.

“Wake up. There’s 40 percent or whatever it is in this country that feels deeply differently than we do, and we need to understand this movement and not be so quick to dismiss it. Divorce is not an option. So what are we going to do about this?” Newsom continued. “We’ve got a lot of work to do—rebranding, rebuilding, a lot of work as a party. Wake the hell up.”

Pushing back on critics who’d attacked him for allowing Kirk a platform, Newsom argued that it was Kirk who had platformed him: “I didn’t have one follower. He had millions.”

The governor’s strategy appears to have worked on at least one person: Singer.

“Newsom,” she wrote, “has been vindicated by history.”

Critics were quick to call out the clear bias in Singer’s writing.

Kevin Dalton wrote on X, “‘Let’s get this out of the way: He is embarrassingly handsome, his hair seasoned with silver, at ease with his own eminence as he delivers his final State of the State address.’ —Vogue, apparently taken over by a 15-year-old girl with a crush on Gavin Newsom or Izzy.”

Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer called the whole thing, “Very Beto.”

“The Gavin Newsom piece in Vogue is something to behold. A true monument to sycophancy, obsequiousness and outright slobbery,” Gerry Callahan said, adding, “The writer, Maya Singer, abandons all professional dignity and acts less like a reporter and more like a golden retriever whose owner just returned from a long trip.”

The United Nations is at serious risk of “imminent financial collapse” after President Trump slashed U.S. funding last month, Secretary-General António Guterres warned in a letter.

In a letter sent to all 193 member states last week, Guterres warned that the U.N. could run out of money by July. “I cannot overstate the urgency of the situation we now face. We cannot execute budgets with uncollected funds, nor return funds we never received,” the secretary-general wrote, according to the BBC.

President Trump pulled out of UNESCO, the U.N. cultural agency; the World Health Organization; and the U.N. Human Rights Council in January, citing waste, mismanagement, and a lack of financial commitment from other countries.

“We walked away from WHO, the World Health Organization; UNRWA, the U.N. agency in Gaza that’s been completely infiltrated by Hamas. We walked out of it and defunded that, too. The so-called human rights councils that cater to countries like North Korea and Venezuela and Iran. We’ve walked away from that,” United States Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz told The Daily Wire in December. “It’s really about focusing our effort on the parts that align with an America First agenda and defunding and walking away from the rest of it — the nonsense.”

The U.S., previously the U.N.’s largest contributor, did not pay its regular budget contribution in 2025 and provided only 30% of the expected funding for U.N. peacekeeping operations. In December, the U.S. pledged $2 billion to U.N. humanitarian programs, a fraction of the $17 billion it spent in 2022, according to the BBC.

“[The U.N.] needs to get back to basics, stop with all of the other nonsense, trying to do everything for everybody all over the world. Stop with the focus on climate, stop with the focus on gender and all of these other social issues, regardless of how you feel about them, and let’s get back to peace,” Waltz said.

Prior to recent funding reductions, U.S. taxpayers had been providing 22% of the U.N.’s regular budget, more than the next three highest contributors combined.

President Trump has shifted his focus to his newly established Board of Peace, which is intended to oversee the technocratic transitional government for Gaza, among other geopolitical objectives.

The Board has a $1 billion permanent membership fee, and with 60+ countries invited, is seen by many as a potential challenger to the United Nations.

Several other major donor nations have also announced funding reductions. The United Kingdom and Germany have implemented significant cuts to their foreign aid budgets, further compounding the U.N.’s financial troubles.

Guterres’ letter described the current crisis as “categorically different” from previous financial challenges, noting that only 77% of assessed contributions were paid in 2025, leaving billions in unpaid dues.

The Secretary-General concluded that the “integrity of the entire system” depends on all nations honoring their “assessed contributions,” and should the budget shortfalls remain unaddressed, the U.N. must “fundamentally overhaul our financial rules to prevent an imminent financial collapse.”