Californians knew it, and Gavin Newsom’s secret calendar confirmed it.

The governor has checked out of his day job.

Newsom is on pace to skip out on a staggering 54 workdays in 2026, after logging zero government business on 18 tax-funded workdays in the first four months of the year.

And that doesn’t include 53 datebook entries simply labeled “work time,” or the 17 entries that were at least partially redacted.

How nebulous. 

So much for the transparency Newsom likes to boast about.

The gov only released his calendars after months of delay and legal action by The Post’s lawyers –– and what he shared is incomplete. 

What does that tell us?

This much did pop off the pages: California has a governor focused not on his state, but on himself.

Newsom’s comings, goings and doings seem calculated to improve his optics, raise his national profile and boost his standing with those who will vote in the 2028 Democratic primaries.

Meanwhile, California’s crises have festered.

The state’s ills under Newsom are many, and include chronic high rates of homelessness; a staggering lack of affordability; shortages of housing, water, energy and road capacity; abysmal public education outcomes; overtaxation — including an absurd proposed billionaire tax; woeful underperformance by state government; rampant fraud; widespread crime; union and other special-interest capture of Sacramento; and more.

Yet rather than effectively addressing such woes, the governor has favored foreign travel –– including jaunts to Davos, Munich and London; traversed early-primary-voting states on a book tour; and poured time into coaxing friendly media to generate puff pieces. 

Newsom also spent 19 hours preparing for a lackluster, hour-long State of the State address.

As the calendar pages turned, the gov jetted to Michigan to appear with Abdul El-Sayed, the radical antisemite who eked out a win in that state’s Democratic primary for US Senate.

Even if we believe Newsom’s team that he’s out of state (again) to promote other Democrats, the trip’s all about politics –– not state business.

None of this depicts a man of serious public purpose.

It shows a political candidate who’s all about appearances, who feels entitled to do what he wants, and who has bigger things on his mind than running the most populous state in the nation.

It makes one wonder what role he’d covet if he ever did get elected president. Emperor, perhaps?

Whatever Newsom’s endgame, shining a light on his secret daybook is a win for democracy. 

The people of California, and beyond, deserve to know who’s fiddling and what’s burning.  

Democrats will decide soon enough if they want to nominate Newsom and his American Idle act to run for US president.

If they don’t know it already, they should: Gavin Newsom is not a serious person –– except when it comes to his own ambition.