During his "My Take" on Tuesday, "Varney & Co." host Stuart Varney discussed the plight of California under the leadership of Gov. Gavin Newsom as he spends more taxpayer money to mount a Trump resistance campaign.

: I sometimes wonder if California is really part of America. I arrived in San Francisco in 1975, nearly 50 years ago. 

Back then, the Golden State was indeed golden. It was the cultural leader of the country. It seemed like everyone wanted to live there.

Fifty years on, it has lost its way. California is now fighting a rearguard action to keep the old, failed policies in place.

They just can't handle Donald Trump. Gov. Gavin Newsom called a special legislative session. It has established a $25 million legal fund to "defend California values."

The fund will pay lawyers to fight Trump if he challenges California's extreme pollution rules, or if he enforces the deportation of migrant criminals. 

I wonder how taxpayers feel about fighting the Feds when the state is already deeply in debt.

These wonderful "California values" have already saddled the state with the highest poverty rate in the country and some of the highest tax rates. 

Let’s not forget the bullet train that Newsom pledged to rein in, but is still nowhere near completion at a cost of $100 billion. 

The most expensive gas in the country, a crime wave and the appalling failure of K-12 public education. Newsom's children attended private school.

What's really going on here is Newsom is leading the developing Trump resistance movement. He will use this as a platform for his run at the presidency in 2028.

Four years is a long time in politics, and there's no telling how things will develop in the second Trump presidency.

I just can't imagine California leading the culture again. 

I can't imagine the rest of the country wanting to look like California, but at the moment, Newsom is all the "resistance" has, and that ain't much.