Bill Maher’s latest episode turned into a political crystal-ball session when guest Scott Galloway floated Gavin Newsom as the inevitable 2028 Democratic nominee, arguing that the California governor’s telegenic style and national fundraising machine will eclipse every other contender by the midterms. What makes the prediction intriguing is not just Galloway’s track record of calling elections early, but the way Newsom’s record in Sacramento—seven major gun-control packages since 2019, the state’s “sensitive places” expansion, and his open contempt for the Bruen decision—has already become a national blueprint. If Galloway is right, the next presidential cycle could pit a candidate who treats the Second Amendment as a campaign prop against a Republican field still searching for a unifying post-Trump message on guns.

For the 2A community the stakes are concrete: Newsom’s model relies on liability shields for anti-gun banks, micro-stamping mandates that functionally ban new handguns, and the continued flow of California-style restrictions into federal courtrooms via friendly circuits. A Newsom presidency would likely accelerate those trends, turning every ATF rule into a floor rather than a ceiling and daring SCOTUS to keep expanding Bruen’s text-and-history test. Pro-Second-Amendment voters therefore have a narrow window—ending in 2026—to expand state-level legislative gains and bank enough favorable precedents that even a Newsom White House would face an uphill legal battle rather than a blank check.