BIG CHALLENGES FOR CALIFORNIA IN A POTENTIAL NEW TRUMP PRESIDENCY

 

CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2024 OR THEREAFTER

BY THOMAS D. ELIAS

“BIG CHALLENGES FOR CALIFORNIA IN A POTENTIAL NEW TRUMP PRESIDENCY”

 

California’s high hopes of avoiding a second “War on California” by a federal government headed by Donald Trump appeared late on Election Night to be squelched. After a four-year break while Democrat Joe Biden held the White House, Trump will apparently soon reoccupy the nation’s main mansion.

 

The meanings for California in this month’s squeaker of an election, partially made possible by Republican Party maneuvers to shorten the voting rolls in states from Arizona to Georgia, go far beyond seeing a convicted felon retake the presidency over a former California attorney general, Kamala Harris. 

 

For Trump and former aides in his 2017-2021 administration seemed during the campaign to promise a renewed effort to penalize California, with consequences more severe than what this state fought to stave off during Trump’s earlier time in office.

 

As President, Trump delayed aid for wildfire victims in California until forced to act. With extreme heat often making fire situations more urgent than a few years ago, such delays could have much deadlier consequences than before – entirely aside from possibly leading to financial ruin for fire area residents.

 

Harris, who as a state attorney general and one of California’s U.S. senators, trekked often to fire scenes, would know better than to delay, but chances are Trump would try that, at the very minimum. He explicitly threatened it during the campaign.

 

Another upcoming conflict: While California has used its unique authority under the federal Clean Air Act to force building and selling electric vehicles, including trucks, Trump tried hard in his previous term to stop all that. He railed against EVs in several speeches this fall, even when not asked about them, demonstrating his continued determination to deprive California of its unique ability to clean up its smoggy air.

 

It’s doubtful California Atty. Gen, Rob Bonta will be able to stave off this effort completely, so long as Trump is backed by a Supreme Court largely of his own choosing.

 

Trump also challenged California’s right to regulate and forbid further oil drilling offshore, including areas near some of the state’s choicest beaches. He will get little opposition now when he begins to sell new coastal oil leases, and figures also to ignore the state’s new rules limiting oil drilling near schools and homes.

 

Trump’s likely victory also makes it far more probable that the federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will never follow through on its commitment to repay a $1 billion loan from the state to Pacific Gas & Electric Co. enabling it to keep the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant open until at least 2030. Given Trump’s long record of stiffing workers and contractors who worked on his company’s many properties, how likely is he to make good on a financial commitment from a prior Democratic administration?

       

Then there’s abortion, where California on any given day hosts hundreds of women from other states with a variety of abortion bans who come here to evade those rules, which often exclude even dealing with the products of rape and incest.

 

Trump has also threatened to spurn both the Constitution and tradition by using the military against some protesters. And he said during one of his rambling press conferences he would not object to states tracking pregnant women to make sure they don’t visit places like California, New Mexico and New York to end their pregnancies. It’s not a long step from using federal troops against protests to employing federal agents to prevent women from aborting damaged or unwanted fetuses.

 

Trump also pledged to send active duty troops – not merely National Guard soldiers – to California’s border with Mexico to stifle illegal immigration. That’s now distinctly possible.

 

Then there’s the border wall, whose cost Trump once promised to fob off onto Mexico. That didn't happen, but chances are Trump will try to complete it anyway, even if that means American taxpayers foot the bill.

 

The bottom line: For many California voters – who for a third time voted heavily against Trump – his victory may cause serious problems.

 

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    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.