Democratic Governors Join Forces to Resist Trump’s Extreme Policies

As the new Trump administration begins to take shape, the MAGA leader’s cabinet picks are dominating the news cycle. Matt Getzone of the most unethical members of Congress, as Attorney General? A Fox a news anchor with no government experience as a defense minister? Pro-Putin conspirator Tulsi Gabbard in charge of national intelligence? Anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Heads Health Department?

If 2017 was a preview of President Donald Trump’s use of strange, offensive appointees as a way to destroy the effectiveness of the “administrative state,” 2025 promises to be a telling one. There is no mystery here; it will be a combination of kleptocracy, autocracy, and idiocy—and not necessarily in that order.

There is, however, another important story: the inevitable clash that will unfold between the federal system, which obeys the template, and the states, led by Democrats, who are desperate to protect their populations and their progressive policies. Push federal insanity and brutality too far and eventually something will give. As the Department of Justice is turned into a MAGA commissariat, as the military is brought to the streets to suppress protesters, the Democratic-led states will have to work to keep the nation’s justice system and public safety agencies functioning. And if their state’s National Guard is federalized to force them to participate in immigration crackdowns and militarized police forces, Democratic political leaders and the public will have to resist the march to The principle of the leader as they can.

Earlier this week, the governors of Illinois and Colorado announced the creation of a coalition of states ready to oppose the federal. They called it “Governors for Democracy” and pitched the idea that by combining legal expertise and political resources, state governments would have a chance to counter Trump’s extreme policies.

Although California Governor Gavin Newsom is not a founding member of the group, his state, by virtue of its size and economic influence, will play a key role in this process, as it was in 2017. After all, California has built a cache of environmental and public health achievements over the past few years and won’t stand by as those policies erode. Newsom has vowed to slow the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants — and the state will have to do so if it wants to avoid catastrophic economic disruptions, including unprecedented inflationary pressure and the massive upheaval in the state’s housing market that would result from any serious effort to deport the millions of undocumented migrants who live and work in the Golden State. And knowing that Trump’s people will likely respond by withholding funds for disaster relief or other needs in states that don’t toe the line, she will have to repeatedly sue the Trump administration to access the dollars she has the right

Last week, before heading to Washington, D.C., to press the Biden administration to sign off on a series of waivers that California has filed, particularly on environmental and health care policies, Newsom announced that he would convene special legislative session in early December to strengthen the state’s laws against the expected crackdown. The governor, who has national political ambitions until 2028, said this is necessary to jump in the fight against “unconstitutional and illegal federal policy,” as he expected to come out of D.C. on January 20. Heads of legislative bodies agree. In the coming years, state House Speaker Robert Rivan and Senate President Mike McGuire will almost certainly be the two most important political figures nationally as states take sides in what is shaping up to be a bitter political trench war for years to come.

McGuire (D-North Coast) says he’s ready to “defend the people, policies and values ​​that make the Golden State great.” He argues that state lawmakers will work with the incoming administration if they can, “but if the president-elect tries to undermine our state, our freedoms or our democracy, he will quickly see how determined the people of California are. .”

In other words, buckle up.

Newsom is particularly interested in using the special legislative session to secure funding for the state’s Justice Department so it can prepare to file a series of lawsuits against Trump’s policies. With the federal Justice Department in the hands of a bomb-thrower like Matt Gaetz, who is expected to strip it of professionals and replace them with people willing to prosecute Trump’s perceived enemies, progressive state attorneys general will have to do the job. protecting workers’ rights, providing access to ballot boxes, investigating corporate corruption, etc.

At this most difficult moment for American democracy, the world will be counting on California and other powerful Democratic-led states to pull the country out of the wreckage.