January 22 2026, 08:15 
Gay Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made homophobic comments comparing California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) to Patrick Bateman, the fictional serial killer from the 2000 film American Psycho, and Sparkle Beach Ken from the 2023 comedic film Barbie.
“Governor Newsom, who strikes me as Patrick Bateman meets Sparkle Beach Ken, may be the only Californian who knows less about economics than Kamala Harris,” Bessent told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week, according to The Hill.
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Using homophobic rhetoric, Bessent continued, “[Newsom is] here this week with his billionaire sugar daddy, Alex Soros, and Davos is a perfect place for a man who, when everyone else is on lockdown, when he was having people arrested for going to church, he was having $1,000 a night meals at the French Laundry. And I’m sure the California people won’t forget that.”
A “sugar daddy” refers to a wealthy older man who gives money as a form of appreciation to his poorer sexual partners. Bessent’s comments about the French Laundry refer to a November 2020 incident in which Newsom attended a birthday dinner for a lobbyist friend at the luxurious French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley, in possible violation of the strict COVID-19 safety protocols his administration imposed on the state.
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Alexander Soros is the 40-year-old son of Jewish billionaire George Soros. George Soros has become a regular right-wing bogeyman for using his fortune to fund thousands of education, health, human rights, and democracy projects. Right-wingers regularly (and dishonestly) blame George Soros for funding right-wing violence and immigration to the U.S. southern border.
Alex Soros likely gained Bessent’s ire for praising Newsom as “the real star of the 2026 World Economic Forum.”
“So glad he’s here calling out world leaders for believing appeasement works when it comes to Trump,” Alex Soros said of Newsom. “It doesn’t. It only emboldens him to become more chaotic and destructive. World leaders could take a page out of Newsom’s book. It’s time to stand tall, stand firm, and stand united — before it’s too late.”
Newsom panned Trump’s speech to the forum as “remarkably boring” and “insignificant,” and criticized European leaders for “being complicit” and “pathetic” in their response to the president’s threats to take over Greenland.
In seeming retaliation for his comments about Trump, Newsom said he been blocked by White House officials from holding a planned media appearance at the USA House, the official U.S. pavilion at Davos.
“I was told [Newsom] was asked to give a speech on his signature policies, but he’s not speaking. Because what have his economic policies brought? Outward migration from California, a gigantic budget deficit,” Bessent said at the forum. “Shame on him. He is too smug, too self-absorbed, and too economically illiterate to know anything.”
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