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He dined with his archnemesis. He hobnobbed with his contemporaries. And then Gov. Gavin Newsom made a four-hour road trip from Washington to New York, where he swung by The New York Times.

Mr. Newsom’s visit to New York came after a weekend at the annual conference of governors, where he made headlines for what seemed to be a new willingness to work with the Trump administration. On Sunday, he met with the acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and attended a black-tie dinner at the White House hosted by the president.

“It is important for us to establish relationships not only with governors but with other legislative leaders in D.C.,” Mr. Newsom said. “And to the extent that we can with key cabinet agency directors and leaders in the administration and dare I say the president himself.” Still, he said, California is not backing down. He mentioned the 46 lawsuits California is fighting with the Trump administration and said a 47th might be filed as early as this week. The governor also talked about the many ways California sets the agenda for the rest of the country. Here are some more highlights:

California as the Future

“In every way we are America’s coming attraction,” Mr. Newsom said. “And I say every way because literally America in 2019 was California in the 1980s and 1990s. Everything we’re experiencing — the xenophobia, the nativism, the fear of the other, think back to Pete Wilson and Prop 187 — that would make Donald Trump blush.”

But, he noted, the ascendancy of the Republican Party came to a halt roughly two decades ago in the state and, “Now here we are: 27 percent foreign born, we brought in 112,000 refugees in the last 15 years, we’re a majority minority state, thriving economically, but still struggling with these disparities.” He added: “Someone recently said to me, ‘You are just America, but more so. More poverty, more problems, more opportunity, more ambition.’”