CALIFORNIA
FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2019, OR THEREAFTER
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2019, OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“TRUMP’S ‘WAR’ ON CALIFORNIA: JUST FOR SHOW?”
It’s
easy to find an obvious motive for President Trump’s well-documented and
much-ballyhooed “war” on California. After all, this state in 2016 gave Hillary
Clinton a margin of more than 3 million votes over Trump and he’s felt hurt and
angry over it ever since.
He’s
taken action after action against this state’s best interests, one example his
September attempt to eliminate California’s unique authority the early-1970s
Clean Air Act to regulate its own air quality. Even though Trump and his
handpicked chief of the federal Environmental Protection Agency moved the other
day to revoke that ability, most legal authorities say he can’t actually do it
because California’s right to fix its air was granted by Congress, not the
President of that time, Republican Richard Nixon.
Presidents
have a lot of executive authority, those legal experts say, but they cannot
unilaterally reverse acts of Congress.
Showing
its whimsical nature, Trump’s administration shortly after announced it would
withhold highway funds from dozens of California areas because they don’t meet
federal clean air standards – even though some of the affected areas do in fact
meet those standards. So Trump wants to penalize California for having dirty
air at the same time he seeks to take away its ability to clean up that same
air. Go figure, or as Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein deadpanned, the
combined moves “seem counterintuitive.”
Trump also threatens to withhold federal
grants from police in California’s many “sanctuary cities.” He warned he would
cut federal wildfire aid and penalize San Francisco because its homeless
population allegedly dumps human waste and hypodermic needles into the Pacific
Ocean and San Francisco Bay. Except they don’t do that.
Time
after time, Trump trumpets actions against California, with the state’s
attorney general, Xavier Becerra, reacting with lawsuits like a Pavlovian
laboratory dog.
But
does Trump really mean all this seriously, when he’s had so little success at
it? Or is another agenda at work here?
This
question arises because the pre-presidency Trump was in effect a carnival
barker, always aware of the legendary circus impresario P.T. Barnum’s
observation that “There’s a sucker born every minute.” Trump the showman
understood while running his reality television show that, as a New York Times
television critic observed, “the only rule is that there are no rules.”
He
carried this sense over into his presidency, where a day rarely goes by without
some crisis, be it a threat to bomb Iran or one to punish California. Trump
also knows that California-bashing is a longtime, popular national pastime
everywhere outside the Golden State.
So
when Trump blasts America’s longtime allies and cozies up to the most murderous
of foreign dictators, it may all be for show, with the sense that as long as he
keeps America entertained, he can get on with his real interest, which is
making profits.
It’s
an approach completely unlike any previous President, and one whose ultimate
consequences are unknown as an impeachment inquiry gets started. But it is
fairly clear that Trump stands little chance of making good on most of the
attacks he’s made against California.
Top
state officials say they are fairly certain of that, despite a Supreme Court
that’s upheld some other unprecedented Trump actions, like his condoning the
caging of small immigrant and refugee children.
Said
Gov. Gavin Newsom, who seems to enjoy sparring with Trump, and so is part of
the President’s new show, “If Trump prevails, we will have more asthma in
California…and other diseases. But that’s the state of things today in this
country…We will fight back when he goes after our Dreamers and our health
standards. And we will win in the courts.”
Added
Becerra, “If the arguments in the President’s tweets are the arguments they
will use to propel (legal actions), then we’re looking pretty good and we will
enjoy facing them in court.”
The
trick here is to see Trump’s real apparent motive: Less to hurt California or
the potential victims of his actions than to keep the spotlight constantly on
himself, impeachment investigation or not, and thereby help ensure another presidential
term and even more personal profits while he steers government and foreign
spending to his many properties.
-30-
Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough, The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It" is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net
Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough, The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It" is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net
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