Lambasted as an example of liberal "failed policies" by Donald Trump throughout his campaign, California is expecting the worst from the next administration, particularly when it comes to environmental protection matters. During his first term in office, the billionaire had notably tried to attack the Clean Air Act, an exception to federal regulations which, since the 1970s, has allowed the Golden State to set its own air pollution standards, which are stricter than in the rest of the country.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, who, until Kamala Harris became the Democratic party candidate, had been one of Joe Biden's main lieutenants in his anti-Trump offensive, knows what to expect. Even before the election, he had declared he was convinced that the Republican president-elect would not even wait a "nanosecond" to "put a crowbar in the spokes of our wheels."

On Wednesday, November 6, he issued a statement hailing Harris's efforts, promising to work with the president-elect – though without going so far as to congratulate him – but announcing that he would defend the Constitution and the rule of law. "Federalism is the cornerstone of our democracy," he wrote, adding: "It's the United STATES of America."

According to the Los Angeles Times, Newsom has been studying Project 2025, the platform of measures created for Trump, and its consequences for California. Together with the state's attorney general, Rob Bonta, he has reviewed more than a hundred lawsuits California filed against the federal government during the Trump years, in order to identify potential vulnerabilities for the state.

He plans to call a special legislative session in December, to take preventive measures before Trump's inauguration, on January 20, 2025. "We continue to drive that hard with the same kind of energy," he said, adding: "I dealt with this guy for years. I'm better prepared than most."

In 2016, California, then led by governor and ardent environmentalist Jerry Brown, had taken the lead in the Resistance movement. Eight years on, California is not the same, nor is it immune to the right-wing trend in America. The November 5 election showed that the population of the state – where Democrats outnumber Republicans two to one – is also looking for security.

Seen as a barometer of changing perspectives, four years after the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement, Proposition 36, a referendum increasing penalties for petty crime and drug offenses, received massive support (on November 6, it garnered 70% of the vote). In 2014, a majority of voters had adopted an opposite measure, and reduced sentences in a bid to alleviate overcrowding in prisons and test alternatives to incarceration.

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