California Gov. Gavin Newsom is seeking advice from Bill Clinton and drafting a Project 2029 agenda as 2028 talk grows, even as critics brand him a political chameleon.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy went on Fox News and branded the California governor a “chameleon of politics” who shifts with the wind, as Newsom prepared a Michigan visit and fed fresh speculation about a possible 2028 White House bid.
Fox News Digital reported the McCarthy broadside alongside Newsom’s Vanity Fair interview, in which the governor named Bill Clinton his political model, said he still seeks the former president’s counsel, and described a 36-page set of policy ideas he calls Project 2029.
Newsom is nearing the end of his second and final term in Sacramento. He is already promoting a memoir, “Young Man in a Hurry,” including stops tied to early-primary terrain, and he is talking like a man testing national waters.
In the Vanity Fair interview, Newsom did not hedge about the former president’s place in his political education.
He said he watches Clinton videos and still goes to him for guidance.
Newsom told the magazine:
"I watch videos of Clinton. I seek his counsel, his advice, and even in his absence, do that. I’ve been a student of his from day one,"
He went further, casting Clinton as unmatched on the nuts and bolts of politics.
"[There is] no greater problem solver in that respect than Bill Clinton, in my mind. Master of his craft. Next-level,"
Newsom also described late-night calls from Clinton about strategy, policy, and California’s problems. He recounted Clinton telling him he had been thinking “just nonstop” and concluding, “I just think you represent what they fear.”
That is high praise for a former president whose record still carries heavy baggage. Reporting on the same episode noted past scrutiny of Clinton’s association with Jeffrey Epstein and the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Clinton has denied knowing about Epstein’s crimes or engaging in wrongdoing.
McCarthy’s attack framed Newsom as a politician who changes colors when the audience changes. The timing mattered: the criticism came ahead of Newsom’s Michigan visit, with 2028 chatter already attached to the trip.
Newsom answered the fighting question in Vanity Fair without sounding shy.
"I don’t have a problem fighting,"
He added:
"Nor do I have a problem getting roughed up and getting back up. I’ve been road tested. It’s not small ball out here in California."
He also refused the “establishment” label and reached for a different brand.
"I’m notoriously a disrupter at heart,"
And:
"I’ve never been for the status quo. Quite the contrary. I have a record that consistently challenges the status quo, and I tend to take risks to a degree that few elected officials do."
That is the pitch. The problem is the résumé. Newsom has spent decades inside California’s political machinery, not outside it. Claiming outsider energy after that long inside the system is a hard sell with voters who have watched California’s results.
Newsom is not only talking mentors and mindset. He is writing a 36-page policy document he brands Project 2029, a name modeled after the conservative Project 2025 governing blueprint.
He waved off the idea that the pages are mere messaging.
"No one touches these,"
Then he listed the topics in his own words:
"These are my own little version. This is just policy, not narrative, the kinds of things we need to do: zoning reform, corporate tax, junk-fee stuff, new domestic strategies and tariffs, preschool things, a cap on childcare, family leave, paid sick leave, child tax credits, industrial decarbonization, anti-monopoly stuff, immigration, whistleblower protections."
It is a wide menu. Zoning, taxes, tariffs, childcare, family leave, decarbonization, antitrust, immigration, and more. What it is not, on the public record provided, is a finished governing plan with costs, trade-offs, or a record of delivery attached. It is Newsom’s framing of the “kinds of things we need to do.”
Related coverage tied to the same reporting cycle also flagged Newsom’s openness to packing the Supreme Court and his description of the Electoral College system as “perverted.” Those lines sit in the same political lane: big institutional changes sold as reform.
Democratic strategist Doug Friednash told Fox News Digital that Newsom would be smart to study Clinton’s approach at a moment when the party’s brand is deeply unpopular.
"At a time when the Democratic Party brand is incredibly unpopular with Americans, Newsom would be wise to take a page out of Bill Clinton’s playbook recognizing that Democrats need to appeal beyond its progressive left,"
Friednash also named the core credibility problem.
"Newsom’s challenge will be authentically casting himself as a disrupter when he has spent decades as part of the California political establishment."
Kaivan Shroff, another Democratic strategist, made the same Clinton point in sharper form: successful Democrats once moved the party without speaking only in the language of the activist left.
"Clinton’s lesson was that successful Democrats could move the party in new directions without losing touch with voters who did not speak the language of the activist left,"
Shroff’s verdict on Newsom was cautious, not celebratory.
"Newsom seems to understand that distinction. The harder question is whether he can actually pull it off."
That is the heart of the story. Newsom wants Clinton’s craft, Clinton’s late-night counsel, and a Project 2029 binder with his name on it. He wants credit as a disrupter. He also says he will stand down in 2028 if Kamala Harris runs.
Book-tour optics already point toward a longer game. He has appeared at The Music Hall in Portsmouth, N.H., in the state that traditionally holds the first primary, and at a San Francisco event promoting “Young Man in a Hurry.” A photo caption in the coverage dated one San Francisco promotional appearance to Feb. 28, 2026.
Put the pieces together and the pattern is plain. A term-limited California governor praises Bill Clinton as a “master,” says he studies the old tapes, and keeps the former president on the phone. He writes a policy stack branded Project 2029. He denies the establishment tag and claims risk-taking disruption. A former Republican House speaker calls him a chameleon. Even friendly Democratic strategists warn that the disrupter act collides with decades inside California power.
Newsom’s own words leave little doubt about the ambition. He wants the Clinton toolkit, a fresh policy label, and room to run, unless Harris gets there first. Voters will decide whether the rebrand matches the record he already built.
Conservatives have seen this movie before: a polished coastal politician borrows moderate language, courts a famous mentor, and asks the country to ignore the results back home.
