For years, California’s Democratic leaders have operated as if their primary responsibility isn’t governing the state but waging a perpetual legal war against Donald Trump. Now, as Trump returns to the White House, Sacramento is gearing up for yet another battle, allocating $50 million to fight his immigration policies and protect its progressive agenda.
This isn’t a new strategy—California sued the Trump administration over 120 times during his first term, spending at least $42 million in taxpayer funds in the process. But this time, it’s different. This time, California has crises of its own making that are spiraling out of control. While lawmakers posture against Trump, the state is drowning in economic mismanagement, crumbling infrastructure, and a public safety crisis.
California is on fire—literally and figuratively—and its leaders are too obsessed with Donald Trump to notice.
At the heart of this latest funding package is the idea that California must “defend itself” against Trump before he’s even taken any major immigration actions. Lawmakers rushed to pass $25 million to fund legal battles against federal policies that don’t yet exist, and another $25 million to provide free legal defense for illegal immigrants facing deportation.
What’s striking about this move is how unnecessary it is. During Trump’s first term, California had no trouble launching legal fights when actual policies were enacted. So why preemptively set aside tens of millions of dollars now? The answer is simple: California’s ruling class needs Trump as a scapegoat to distract from their own failures.
California has the highest poverty rate in the nation when adjusted for cost of living, a homelessness crisis that has spiraled out of control, and a $73 billion budget deficit that has forced lawmakers to consider new taxes to plug the hole. Crime is surging in major cities. Businesses and residents are fleeing in record numbers.
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And yet, instead of tackling these crises, state leaders have chosen to waste millions on political showmanship, funding lawsuits that don’t exist yet while actual Californians suffer.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has never passed up an opportunity to make his state a progressive fortress against Trump, was the one who called the special session to push these measures through. But his sudden rush to secure legal funding against Trump raises questions:
This is about priorities. And Newsom’s priority is his political brand, not the well-being of Californians.
He has national ambitions, and his playbook is clear: Position himself as the leader of the anti-Trump “resistance” to keep himself in the national conversation for 2028. But in doing so, he’s treating his own state as a political prop, burning through taxpayer money to fight imaginary battles while real problems are ignored.
The real irony in all of this is that California has been here before. The last time Trump was in office, Sacramento became a lawsuit factory, challenging everything from immigration enforcement to environmental regulations.
And what was the result?
The state is now doubling down on that same losing strategy, even as California’s own economy and stability crumble.
California’s leaders need to understand that Donald Trump is not the reason their state is in crisis. Their failed policies are.
This new legal fund is a wasteful distraction—a convenient way to blame an external boogeyman instead of taking responsibility for years of mismanagement. Even if you set aside the political dynamics, the simple truth is that a state that can’t afford to fix its problems shouldn’t be wasting millions of dollars on preemptive lawsuits against the federal government.
At some point, California’s leaders need to wake up and focus on governing their own state rather than using taxpayer money to wage political wars on Washington, D.C.
Unfortunately, as long as Newsom and California Democrats see political value in fighting Trump, the state’s real crises will continue to go unresolved.
And Californians will keep paying the price.