The last time Donald Trump was president, California led the liberal resistance to his policies. He is now ready to reprise the role.

Indeed, when Trump’s return to power drew attention late Tuesday, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said there are already plans to do so, and that the state is “1000% focused” and ready to fight for California’s progressive way of life in the courtroom and beyond. said.

Bonta, who is considering a run for governor, said he will “use the full force of the law and the full power of our state offices to defend and protect California’s progress, people, and values.”

“We have spent months, in some cases over a year,” Bonta added, “from attacks on the environment to attacks on our common sense of reproductive freedom. “We have been planning for potential attacks and responses across a wide range of issues and sectors,” he added. The law, the LGBTQ+ community, civil rights, and various constitutional rights. ”

California sued the first Trump administration more than 100 times, many of them successfully, and Bonta said a similar litigation approach was almost certain for the former president’s second term.

“If Mr. Trump doesn’t break any laws, unless he violates the Constitution, unless he abuses his power in an illegal way, there’s nothing we can do,” Bonta said. “But if he does what he did last time, and if he does what Project 2025 suggests, then of course we will confront him in court – because he will be breaking the law.”

Bonta’s message was a defiant one in the face of the Democratic Party’s crushing defeat, and a poignant one for Vice President Kamala Harris, a California native who was dubbed by President Trump as “the far-left lunatic who destroyed San Francisco.” Ta.

In his victory speech early Wednesday, President Trump said Americans wanted the Republican Party to “set precedent” to advance conservative policies such as the largest mass deportation in U.S. history, harsher restrictions on abortion, fewer environmental regulations and stronger guns. He said that he had given him a powerful mission. rights and the decline of queer rights.

“This will truly be America’s golden age,” President Trump said.

Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, is an ultra-conservative and anti-social activist that President Trump has distanced himself from but who many see as likely to guide his policy in his second term. In his California Project 2025 playbook, Trump said he had “won through relentless policies.” “Left-wing organizations trying to stop him,” and “the entire conservative movement is united behind him.”

In the Golden State, the nation’s most populous and economically powerful nation, Trump’s mission statement sounded like a quiet rumbling from somewhere else.

As of Wednesday morning, Ms. Harris beat Mr. Trump by about 1.7 million votes in California, with nearly half of the state’s votes still to be counted, or more votes than the entire population of many U.S. states. exceeds. Rep. Adam B. Schiff, one of Mr. Trump’s main opponents in his first term, won a landslide victory as the state’s freshman senator.

In this way, Californians gave their leaders a mandate, said Berkeley Law Dean Irwin Chemerinsky.

“There is a huge ideological difference between California voters and Donald Trump,” Chemerinsky said. “California authorities, including the attorney general, will use the law to fight back.”

Eric Schickler, co-director of the Institute for Government Studies at the University of California, Berkeley and author of the new book Partisan Nation, has no doubt that California will remain a “center of resistance” against Trump. said.

He cited Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Harris surrogate and a regular critic of Trump, who he said is “generally suited to the situation the state’s electorate is in, and the state of the nation for someone like Newsom.” It certainly fits our ambitions.”

But Schickler said “there are also downstream risks and costs,” especially given Trump’s penchant for “revenge politics” and outright threats against the nation.

For example, during last month’s Coachella campaign stop, Trump conflated real issues facing the state with a number of falsehoods, accusing the state of high costs, overregulation, homelessness and crime. did.

He also criticized Newsom for his handling of the state’s water supply and threatened to cut off federal disaster aid for wildfires unless California makes more water available to farmers and homeowners. .

“We’ll take care of your water situation, we’ll shove water down his throat, and we’ll say: Gavin, if you don’t do it, we’re going to send fire to all of you. I’m not going to give you a dime.’ This is the time for all fires, all forest fires,” Trump said.

Newsom did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. But just last week, he said, “No state has anything more to lose or gain in this election.”

President Trump’s promised mass deportation of illegal immigrants alone, if carried out, would be a huge blow to California’s economy, and by extension the national and global economies, with effects “from valley to valley, from Silicon Valley to the Central Valley,” Newsom said. he said.

He said such a move would hurt California’s reputation as a place of opportunity, innovation and entrepreneurship for multigenerational American families and newcomers.

Newsom had called on voters to stop President Trump from taking power. But his comments reflected resistance to Trump that goes back years.

Only a few months have passed since President Trump’s final term began. Governor Newsom gave an impassioned speech at the 2017 state Democratic convention about how California is fighting for the same progressive causes that Bonta touted on Tuesday: immigration, the environment, and the LGBTQ+ community. .

“We are all Californians. Wear it with pride. This is our moment,” Newsom said.

By August 2020, months before Trump lost re-election to Joe Biden, the state had fulfilled its promise. At the time, California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra, now Biden’s Health and Human Services Secretary, announced the state’s 100th lawsuit against the Trump administration.

More than half of the lawsuits allege that the administration violated or failed to comply with federal environmental regulations. Others objected to the administration’s policies on immigration, education, health care, guns, and civil rights.

“I’m amazed that every president in any administration gets caught red-handed violating the law at least 100 times,” Becerra said at the time. “I’m not surprised that we have to litigate, because we have to protect our people, our resources, our values, and we use the rule of law to do that.”

Democratic attorneys general reported winning 83% of the 155 lawsuits they filed against the first Trump administration. totalling By Paul Nolet, Professor of Political Science, Marquette University.

California Democrats had already vowed a rematch Tuesday night, when it became clear that Trump was once again in the lead.

“Let me be clear: California will fight to protect our democracy and freedoms.” [and] State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, wrote about X. “California will not fall to fascism.”

Schiff raised a similar theme in his victory speech. “California will continue to be the front line of progress, the bulwark of democracy, the champion of innovation, and the guardian of our rights and freedoms,” Schiff said.

In his acceptance speech, Trump did not directly address the idea of ​​winning blue states like California, but he promised to make it happen for all Americans. He called his victory a “historic realignment” of the diverse group of Americans who supported him and, given that he survived a near-fatal assassination attempt, believed his mission was from God, not just them. suggested that it was.

Sickler said California will face special challenges in President Trump’s second term.

“There are a number of federal policies that President Trump will advance that could have a significant impact on states, especially given President Trump’s willingness to use executive power and the courts’ The means to resist it may be limited given the fact that it is generally dominated by conservatives who value presidential power, he said.

The Trump administration and the state of California are locked in a major battle over a number of key issues on which they have vastly different positions, including distribution of abortion pills by mail, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and a focus on race-conscious education at public universities. may occur. protection of vulnerable groups such as universities, transgender people and children;

Sickler said it may be the conflict over immigration that is most destabilizing of all.

“Immigration is going to be one of the major flashpoints, assuming there is a mass deportation effort,” Sickler said. “It would involve the federal government working within each state, so it’s not hard to imagine Californians resisting this.”