California took pride in its opposition to Donald Trump during his first term as president and will hardly have to make an effort to take on the same role a second time.

As a bulwark of Democratic party strength in a country moving sharply to the right, the country has long been preparing for this moment.

“California will continue to be the leader of progress, the pillar of democracy, the champion of innovation, and the protector of our rights and freedoms,” pledged Adam Schiff, the state’s newly elected senator and a frequent target of Trump’s anger, his followers. on election night.

On Thursday, Gavin Newsom announced a special session of the California Legislature to ensure the attorney general’s office and other government agencies get the funding they need. “We will not sit idle,” the governor said. “California has faced this challenge before and we know how to respond.”

Even with Trump out of power since 2021, California has set up guardrails to protect the rights of its residents under a hostile federal government. The state has enshrined abortion rights in its constitution, passed a ballot initiative explicitly defending the right of same-sex couples to marry and pushed for stricter gun laws that still align with the Supreme Court’s narrow interpretation of the right to bear arms .

It has even considered introducing state funding to cover the costs of wildfires, earthquakes and other natural disasters in case the Trump administration decides to withhold emergency funds from states it deems politically hostile, as it sometimes did during its 2017- 2021.

“We Trump-proofed the whole thing,” said Elizabeth Ashford, a political consultant who has worked for governors on both sides of the aisle and was Kamala Harris’ chief of staff when she was California’s attorney general. “The work … has been to put in place measures that can withstand the shifts in Washington and at the Supreme Court. These projects have been going on for years.”

When asked how ready she thought California was for the new administration, Ashford said, “On a scale of one to 100, we start at about 90.”

California is both the most populous U.S. state and the most powerful economy, making it an unusual counterweight to the power of the federal government. For example, it has negotiated tailpipe emissions standards directly with automakers, sidestepping Trump allies’ stated desire to end a longstanding rule that allows the state to set its own standards.

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Where it cannot bypass the federal government, it can try to challenge any appearance of government overreach in court, as it did more than 130 times during the first Trump administration. Rob Bonta, the state’s attorney general, told the policy news outlet CalMatters last week that his team had drafted briefs and tested arguments on a range of issues — from restrictions on abortion drugs to gun laws and upholding the civil rights of transgender youth.

“The best way to protect California, its values ​​and the rights of our people is to be prepared,” Bonta told CalMatters. “Unfortunately it’s a long list.”

In a statement on Wednesday, Bonta said California will “continue to move forward, driven by our values ​​and the continued pursuit of progress.” He added: “I will use the full force of the law and the full authority of my office to ensure this.”

It is unlikely that it will be long before California and the new administration come to blows. Newsom has a long record of opposing Trump and spent much of the election campaign traveling the country promoting Democratic candidates — all of which likely makes him a lightning rod for Trump’s anger.

Trump has called Newsom “one of the worst governors in the country” and nicknamed him the “New Scum.” Their rivalry is also personal, as Newsom’s ex-wife, Kimberly Guilfoyle, is engaged to Donald Trump Jr.

Trump’s former staffers have made little secret of their desire to disrupt the Democratic Party’s stranglehold on California politics, laying out their intentions in documents such as the Project 2025 blueprint, which became a lightning rod during the election campaign. Despite Trump’s efforts to distance themselves from it, California officials have carefully studied Project 2025 and believe it will form the policy backbone of the new administration. A California congressman, Jared Huffman, has described it as a “dystopian nightmare.”

There are several ways the state can try to disrupt this nightmare. During Trump’s first presidency, government agencies, including the California Highway Patrol, refused to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency charged with aggressive roundups of undocumented immigrants. Police in so-called “sanctuary cities” similarly protected immigrant populations.

Despite all the preparations, however, state officials fear that the new Trump administration will be more organized and radical than the old one, and that it will have more of a political mandate since a groundswell of voters in California – far more than in 2020 or 2020. in 2016 – have indicated they are sympathetic to parts of the Trump agenda.

Newsom said last week that he was particularly concerned about the prospect of widespread attacks on immigrants, which could be devastating to California’s immigrant-dependent economy, including the massive agricultural conglomerates based largely in the interior of the Central Valley.

There may be other parts of the Trump agenda that, if passed, would be difficult to undo — for example, a national abortion ban passed by Congress, or a repeal of the Obama-era Affordable Care Act. And that has many advocacy groups deeply concerned about the vulnerable populations they serve.

“Our community is feeling very anxious and insecure,” said Terra Russell-Slavin, an attorney at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, “especially given the number of attacks Trump has explosively targeted at the LGBTQ community and specifically at the trans community.”

In response, Russell-Slavin said her organization was working with state and local governments to find alternative funding streams in case the federal government cuts gender-affirming health care, homelessness services or senior services. “We are very fortunate that our legislators overwhelmingly support us,” she said. “We are confident that they will fight for protection for us.”

Will that be enough? For now, California officials are showing their teeth and promising to fight. But Newsom is under no illusions about how much is at stake. “No state,” he said last week, “has more to lose or more to gain in this election.”

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