Gavin Newsom presidential front-runner reveals battle with severe dyslexia

Gavin Newsom, who enjoys using Trump-like trolling tactics, is widely seen as the leader of the Democratic Party in the presidential race.

He is releasing a series of interviews and podcasts, backed by a new memoir, and is trying to show that he is not as liberal as his record as governor of California suggests. For example, unlike most of his party, he opposes trans female athletes competing with men.

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But there is a central fact about Newsom that, while known to insiders and some in his state, is undoubtedly new news to most Americans.

Gavin Newsom is dyslexic. He is severely dyslexic. And as a new profile in the New Yorker makes clear, it affects her life every day.

Newsom showed writer Nathan Heller “a folder of printed material they had read the previous evening. Almost every word of the text was underlined. He glanced at a typesetting proof, where the underlines of his memoirs took up entire pages; he said it was the only way he could read any book, even his own. He produced another folder full of lined paper and covered in handwriting; he copied all the text he had underlined into writing pads.”

And then it comes out on yellow index cards.

As a result, the governor is struggling to do what every working politician should routinely do, and that is make speeches. He has to copy and memorize every word. In TelePrompTer, he “sees the lines of text as a single image, just like the Chinese character he uses to remember the next line.”

California congresswoman Lateefah Simon says a four-hour podcast is easier for Newsom than a 10-minute speech.

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This disability affected his self-image while growing up; Newsom sometimes pretended to be sick to get picked up from school early. “He always called himself stupid,” his sister said.

During the 90-minute drive to Sacramento with his wife, a documentary filmmaker, and their four children, he takes notes and then transfers them to cards and notepads.

So if Newsom were to head to the Oval Office, he would rely heavily on verbal briefings rather than focusing on reports and documents.

The governor describes himself as someone who went through a tough education and got by on giant bowls of macaroni and cheese. A former associate told the New Yorker that it was Newsom’s “‘I was born a poor Black kid’ story.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks to the crowd at the Kershaw County Center on July 8, 2025 in Camden, South Carolina. The governor is on the first of a two-day tour of South Carolina’s rural counties hosted by the state’s Democratic Party. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

In fact, thanks to her father’s connections, she vacationed with John Paul Getty’s family. Newsom’s parents separated when he was three years old.

There is more to the narrative. Newsom’s sister, Hilary, scolded him for continuing to work while their mother attempted assisted suicide.

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Other parts of the life story told here are better known. The failure of Newsom’s marriage to Kimberly Guilfoyle, then a left-wing lawyer in the DA’s office (who later joined Fox News, had an ill-fated engagement to Donald Trump Jr., and is now ambassador to Greece). How he had a relationship with the city’s appointments secretary, who was married to one of his top aides, and admitted: “Everything you hear and read is true.”

And most damaging, he dined maskless with medical executives and a lobbyist at the super-chic French Laundry during the pandemic, when the governor was urging Californians to avoid large gatherings. That led to a recall effort that Newsom beat by 24 points.

California Governor Gavin Newsom looks on during the signing of a bill to redraw the state’s congressional maps on August 21, 2025 in Sacramento, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The governor, who has repeatedly failed to address the state’s homelessness problem, is an unusual man. He opposed a union petition to increase taxes on billionaires, saying it would drive them out of the state. He told President Donald Trump that keeping the border closed was crucial and that he wanted to lift California’s sanctuary state status.

On Election Day last year, Newsom met with aides after reading for three hours about electric vehicle policy.

“It’s a great way to start every day,” he said. “How many books could I read! Literature! Philosophy!”

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Is America ready for Gavin Newsom, who has a huge following on social media, to become a potential president? With California so easily caricatured as a liberal La-La-Land, are voters ready for him as both dyslexia and politician?

I don’t know and I don’t think you do. But we may find out soon.