California lawmakers are back on the clock Monday, feverishly working to Trump-proof their state before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.
The state Senate and Assembly, where Democrats hold a supermajority, started both their regular two-year legislative session and a special session that Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), one of Trump’s chief antagonists, called to prepare for the new president.
Newsom, who is expected to make his own White House bid in 2028, is asking lawmakers to approve up to $25 million in additional funding for Attorney General Rob Bonta (D-CA) to defend state policies in court that Trump has already promised to target.
“We’re prepared, in detail, with a litigation strategy,” Bonta said last month. “We have a legislative strategy. We have thought in detail about where and when we sue and on what grounds. And we’re working with our partners across the state.”
Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire (D-CA) said California has “come too far and accomplished too much to simply surrender and accept [Trump’s] dystopian vision for America.”
California’s plans include safeguarding policies on abortion access, climate change, and immigration.
Newsom has already said the state will provide rebates to eligible residents who buy electric vehicles if Trump ends the $7,500 federal electric vehicle tax credit.
“We will intervene if the Trump administration eliminates the federal tax credit, doubling down on our commitment to clean air and green jobs in California,” Newsom said. “We’re not turning back on a clean transportation future — we’re going to make it more affordable for people to drive vehicles that don’t pollute.”
California is also gearing up for a fight over immigration.
The state prohibits its local police from helping federal immigration authorities with deportations, something that has infuriated Trump.
The president-elect’s advisers have discussed how to strip federal resources from Democratic-run cities unilaterally if they refuse to participate in the deportation of illegal immigrants, the Washington Post reported, citing three sources.
Trump vowed mass deportations during his campaign and after his election win, which prompted fierce pushback from Democratic mayors and governors in states such as California, Illinois, and Washington. During his first term, Trump tried to withhold funds to those areas but had limited success.
There is no love lost between Trump and Newsom.
While campaigning, Trump referred to California as a “paradise lost” and called the state’s leaders “radical left lunatics.” He has repeatedly called Newsom “New-scum” and vowed to prosecute his political enemies.
Newsom, who has emerged as the national face of the Trump resistance, has pushed back.
“The freedoms we hold dear in California are under attack — and we don’t sit idle,” the governor, whose term is up in two years, said. “We are prepared to fight in the courts, and we will do everything necessary to ensure Californians have the support and resources they need to thrive.”
But not everyone is on board with Newsom’s special session.
Assembly Minority Leader James Gallagher (R-CA) called it a “shameless political stunt” in a written statement.
“This special session is a shameless political stunt,” Gallagher said. “The only ‘problem’ it will solve is Gavin Newsom’s insecurity that not enough people are paying attention to him. There will not be a single policy implemented in this special session that couldn’t be addressed when the legislature reconvenes in January. If Newsom is so eager to set up a 2028 presidential run, he’d be much better served by fixing the crime, homelessness, and high costs that will doom his campaign.”
The special session will run at the same time as the regular session, with work and committee hearings starting next month.
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Before the special session begins, state lawmakers are scheduled to swear in more than two dozen new members and elect leaders for the 2025 legislative session.
Hundreds of people are also planning to march around the Capitol in Sacramento, California, to urge the legislature to try to stop Trump’s mass deportation plans.
