Anti-Trump Resistance Gains Momentum—California on the Frontlines

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — With Donald Trump’s imminent return to the White House, California is poised to once again play a familiar role: beating the heart of the resistance.

The state’s ruling Democrats, who for years have portrayed the president-elect as an existential threat, quickly signaled a return to boxing pose the Trump 1.0 era, when California loudly positioned itself as a political and cultural counterweight to Washington.

“Trump mentioned that his campaign was a campaign to protect America,” Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas told POLITICO on election night. “What you can expect is that California will do everything it can to protect America from Donald Trump.”

The basis for a slew of lawsuits has been in the works for more than two years, ever since the Supreme Court overturned the Supreme Court’s decision. Roe v. Wade” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who has directed his team to draft a brief opposing a potential national abortion ban. Since then, his office has prepared arguments on “almost every issue” that could arise during a second Trump administration, from gun control to how federal agencies issue regulations.

“If he takes office and follows the law … then we have nothing to do,” Bonta said. “But if he breaks the law, as he said, he will do so, as Project 2025 says he will do it, then we are ready. We went into detail about which court we are filing the case in.”

The antagonism between the president-elect and California goes both ways. Trump has been consistently hostile to the nation’s most populous state, threatening suspend disaster reliefmaking baseless allegations of election fraud and making ominous threats against California luminaries such as the former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and senator-elect Adam Schiffwhom he called “enemies from within.”

His relationship with Gov. Gavin Newsom, which had moments of cooperation during his first term, has only become more combative, and Trump now almost exclusively derides the governor as “the new trash.”

Assembly GOP Leader James Gallagher predicted that Democrats, who dominate Sacramento, will “try to establish themselves as an anti-Trump state,” a move he said would be a “grave mistake.” “The way they responded to the first Trump administration was about politics and not about looking out for California’s interests,” he said.

Then, even some of the most vocal architects of California’s opposition reported feeling “resistance fatigue” during Trump’s first term, complaining that the cascade of lawsuits, laws and symbolic resolutions at times distracted from other pressing issues within the state’s borders, such as high cost of living. But in this deep blue state, the political incentives were compelling. A number of California politicians, such as Schiff, Rep. Eric Swalwell and impeachment initiator Tom Steyer gained national fame—and accompanying cable news appearances and fundraising pushes—as a result of his clashes with Trump.

Some of the loudest anti-Trump voices in California became more muted as the election results came in.

Schiff, who used his central role in Trump’s first impeachment and the hearings into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol to win a seat in the U.S. Senate, didn’t mention Trump by name during his somber victory speech on election night. Trump, however, played an important role in the subtext of Schiff’s vow to take part in “the great fight to protect our freedoms and our democracy.”

Newsom made no public comments on election night as Democrats in the state were reeling from Vice President Kamala Harris’ resounding defeat and the red wave sweeping much of the country.

The governor will have to actively shape the contours of the California opposition. One of his party’s preeminent national figures since Harris’ defeat, he has enormous influence in deciding whether the agenda in Sacramento will be dominated by opposition to Trump or addressing the state’s persistent crises such as homelessness and housing affordability.

Before Trump was installed, there was informal talk that the governor would call a special session in response to Trump’s victory, according to a senior legislative aide who was granted anonymity to explain the potential outcome. However, according to him, no plans have been confirmed by the governor. Newsom’s office had no comment.

For months, officials have tried to “defend” California from Trump. climate policy and strengthen it disaster preparedness in anticipation of a hostile federal government, a stark contrast to Trump’s shock victory in 2016 that sent state leaders scrambling to retaliate.

Rivas, the Assembly speaker, said the state would be prepared to vigorously protect its immigrant population, which could face severe disruption under Trump’s proposed mass deportation program.

“We will do everything we can to make people feel protected and welcome,” Rivas said, although he declined to discuss specific preparations.

Pre-planning can only go so far. While Bonta will go to the courts to try to block the president’s agenda, as his predecessor Xavier Becerra did dozens of times during Trump’s first term, he could face a frosty reception from the president. conservative Supreme Court.

“We used to have courts, and the courts stopped a lot of the madness, and many of the most grotesque acts against civil rights were found to violate the Constitution,” said David Campos, a progressive activist in San Francisco and vice chairman of the state Democratic Party. . “I’m not sure we have that anymore.”

Democrats are also divided on whether they should follow the same pattern of resistance they laid out eight years ago.

Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, a Los Angeles Democrat who served in the Legislature during Trump’s first term, said she expects her state’s leaders to take a similarly assertive stance against Trump, but this time “on steroids.”

“I want the state legislature, as well as the attorney general and the governor, to oppose it,” Kamlager-Dove said. “They will have the support of the California delegation” in Congress.

But others said the party would be better off if it focused less on reacting to Trump and more on improving the quality of life for Californians.

“The best way to lead the resistance is to demonstrate that not only are we the fourth largest economy in the world, but we can reduce poverty in a state that has the highest effective poverty rate,” said Antonio Villaraigosa, a former Democrat from Los -Angeles. Mayor of Angeles City who is running for governor in 2026. “The best way to lead the resistance is to say that our public schools are the best in the country or that we are moving toward that goal,” he said.

Another gubernatorial contender, former State Comptroller Betty Yee, said California officials should be wary of the dangers posed by an unfriendly Trump administration.

But she warned: “We need to remember Californians and what they deal with every day. I don’t know if they’ll be that patient when we resist when they’re just trying to make something work in their lives.”

Tyler Katzenberger contributed to this report.