SACRAMENTO, California — With Donald Trump’s imminent return to the White House, California is poised to reprise a familiar role — beating heart of the resistance.
The state’s ruling Democrats, who for years have portrayed the president-elect as an existential threat, swiftly signaled a return to the pugilistic posture of the Trump 1.0-era, when California loudly cast itself as the 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 California will do everything we can to protect America from Donald Trump.”
The groundwork for a raft of court challenges has been in the works for more than two years, ever since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, said California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who instructed his team to draft a brief against a potential national abortion ban. Since then, his office has been preparing arguments on “almost every issue” that could possibly arise during a second Trump administration, from gun control to how federal agencies issue regulations.
