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The California state legislature began a special session this week, called for by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, to address ways the government can “Trump-proof” the state ahead of Donald Trump re-entering the White House in January.
Newsom called for the special session just days after Trump won the 2024 presidential election against Vice President Kamala Harris, citing a need for the state to act now to protect people’s rights — both within California and across the country.
“The freedoms we cherish in California are under threat — and we won’t stand by,” Gavin said in a statement last month, calling for additional funds for the state Department of Justice to file lawsuits against potential Trump administration attacks on immigration rights, reproductive rights, and more.
On Monday, Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, a Los Angeles Democrat, introduced legislation to increase that department’s funding by $25 million. Gabriel matched Newsom’s tone in describing why the budget increase for the department was needed.
“We’re not going to be caught flat-footed, and so that’s why we’re taking action to make sure that we have resources in place,” Gabriel said, speaking to the ABC News affiliate station based in Fresno.
The special session, which officially began on Monday, could include a plethora of other bills aimed at disrupting unlawful or unconstitutional actions by the next Trump White House. Those bills will likely focus on defending reproductive rights (including abortion rights and access), defending immigrant rights, opposing a repeal of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and responding to the politicization of federal grant and disaster aid programs.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) says his office will be prepared for whatever actions Trump may take, partly because of the lessons learned during Trump’s first term.
“One of the things we learned during Trump 1.0 is that Trump has an enormous capacity to break the law,” Bonta said in a recent interview. “There’s a way for regulations to be created, and a way for them to be changed. If the law isn’t followed, as it often was not during the first Trump administration, we will sue, and as in the past, we will win.”
Other states have begun the process of forming coalitions to address potential threats from Trump. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D), for example, have created a nonpartisan entity called Governors Safeguarding Democracy (GSD). While the group doesn’t explicitly state that it’s against Trump, its formation and goals (including “pushing back against increasing threats of autocracy”) were clearly developed with the president-elect in mind.
“We founded GSD because we know that simple hope alone won’t save our democracy. We need to work together, especially at the state level, to protect and strengthen it,” Polis said.
Other organizations are also ramping up trainings and preparations for when Trump assumes office in just six weeks’ time.
“We’ve been preparing — we have the legal tools, we have the advocacy tools and, more importantly, we have people,” Maribel Hernández Rivera, director of policy and government affairs for border and immigration at the ACLU, told NPR about the matter.
Mijente, a digital and grassroots organizing hub for Latinx and Chicanx people, is gearing up for Trump by holding “deportation defense” trainings online, to better prepare people and organizations for the incoming administration’s anti-immigrant actions.
“Deportation defense has been a critical way of fighting back and learning how to slow the deportation machine down,” Mijente stated in its description of the planned meetings. “It also is a very clear and direct way to be in solidarity with immigrant communities.”
On social media, Mijente reiterated its pledge to ready itself and others for Trump’s draconian measures targeting migrants.
“When Trump takes office, his admin will move fast to push their anti-immigrant agenda. We don’t know all the details yet, but we do know this: we’ve been here before,” the account for Mijente said on X. “We’ve fought back through raids, deportations & border militarization — and we’ve learned how to defend our gente.”
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