California Governor Gavin Newsom is being accused of "truth decay" by the Rand Corporation, which calls it "truly" and "disappointments" in public discourse. This comes after California lost 54,000 residents last year, marking the first population drop since the end of the pandemic. The Department of Finance blamed federal immigration restrictions for the decline, but this is not the first time California's population has lost population since the 1980s. Governor Newsom defended his record on Bill Maher's HBO show, claiming that California’s population growth has been driven by immigration, including illegal immigration. He also claimed that no other state has outperformed the economy of California, despite the state's unemployment rate being a full percentage point behind the national rate of 4.3%.