Gavin Newsom had a chance to score some cheap political points that could help if, as widely expected, he one day runs for the White House.

To his credit, Newsom succeeded.

Chalk it up to common sense and, if the holiday spirit gets to you, also to the governor’s integrity.

There is a movement across the country to brand Donald Trump as punishment or justice starting in the 2024 presidential election, if you prefer to call out and unleash the deadly mob that overran the Capitol and destroyed our democracy desecrated on January 6, 2021.

The effort began to rot in the hearts of Trump opponents until the Colorado Supreme Court in a 4-3 decision last week disqualified the former president from the state’s primary ballot on the grounds of insurrection.

The pronounciation

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which was based on the 14th Amendment to the Constitution

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But the move by Colorado judges has strengthened the dump-Trump movement and catalyzed opportunists like California Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis.

A day after the ruling, the Democrat wrote Secretary of State Shirley Weber, California’s top election official, encouraging her to follow Colorado’s lead and explore every legal option to kick Trump off California’s March 5 ballot to hold.

This decision is about honoring the rule of law in our country and protecting the fundamental pillars of democracy, said Kounalakis, who is not coincidentally running in the crowded 2026 gubernatorial race to replace Newsom.

It’s clear why Kounalakis played a role. Her political rise to date has rested solely on her extravagant financial resources and her willingness to spend large amounts of money to win public office. Pushing for Trump’s exile is the kind of easy, performative gesture she can call “leadership” in campaign ads and use to curry favor with her party’s left-wing base.

Newsom, whose responsibilities extend beyond those of lieutenant governor, essentially fogging a mirror and serving on various boards and commissions, took a more reasoned and responsible approach.

There is no doubt that Donald Trump is a threat to our freedoms and even our democracy, Newsom said in a statement last week. But in California, we defeat candidates in elections. Everything else is a political distraction.

The governor was right on both counts.

Trump, who channels Mussolini when he’s not plagiarizing Hitler, is essentially a plague preying on America and its freedoms. He must never again come close to holding public office.

But a court ruling or an administrative trick is not the way to defeat him.

Banning Trump from the ballot would only make him a martyr, and as his repeated criminal charges have shown, Trump is a virtuoso of victimhood. He and the MAGA movement must be soundly and unequivocally defeated at the ballot box.

Some argue that it is too risky to run for Trump in 2024 because he might win. But that’s how our political system works, whether you like it or not. Voters decide.

The moment to punish Trump for January 6 and neutralize him politically came in February 2021, when 43 Republican senators voted to acquit the devious ex-president after his impeachment in the House of Representatives.

Several of those senators, including Ted Cruz of Texas and Rick Scott of Florida, are up for re-election next year. Voters in their country can hold them accountable if they wish.

Ending Trump’s candidacy by decree would also exacerbate the lack of confidence in our shaky electoral process, convincing a not insignificant portion of the voting population that the system is rigged against Trump, just as he has wrongly and relentlessly claims.

But what if Trump wins the Republican nomination and then loses the White House again? Some fear Trump will refuse to acknowledge defeat, a position that seems about as certain as New Year’s Day, Jan. 1.

So? Let Trump make his gas claims, which have proven their own sustainable energy source, and he can continue to lead his party to defeat in the polls, as he did in three consecutive elections from 2018 to 2022.

As long as Republicans remain under Trump’s dangerous spell, they deserve to lose.

If Newsom has plans for the White House, the easy and obvious step would have been to second Kounalakis and others and call for the insurgent ex-president’s removal from the 2024 ballot.

It may still be years away, but you can easily see the main competition among Democrats starting before 2028, as hopefuls compete to show who is the most vehemently anti-Trump.

But if you do the easy thing, you don’t need much backbone.

Democrats will have to scrap to win the White House in 2024. They should not rely on election regulators or court decisions to do the work for them.

And Newsom was right when he said that.