NO LONGER JUST TRUMP WARRING ON CALIFORNIA

 

CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, JUNE 17, 2025 OR THEREAFTER

BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“NO LONGER JUST TRUMP WARRING ON CALIFORNIA”

 

No one can doubt anymore that President Trump has carried out a “war” on California in both his presidential terms, harming this state’s reputation, capabilities and privileges in ways no other president ever even tried.

 

Trump is not the only president who failed to win California’s 50-plus electoral votes, he’s merely the one who resented it most. So he’s held up promised disaster aid that was never previously doled out in a partisan manner, holding it hostage to longtime Republican policy priorities like requiring government IDs before voters can cast ballots. His national policies targeting immigrants also have more impact here than elsewhere because California is home to a far larger share of immigrants than its share of national population.

 

Now Trump’s campaign to reduce California’s stature by taking away some of its powers and influence has spread to Congress, narrowly controlled by his Republican Party. It’s a campaign occasionally joined by Democrats from Eastern and Midwestern states. When that happens, it can look like a continuation of the “anywhere but California” sentiment that has sometimes influenced Congress to make epically stupid decisions. One classic was placement for years of the National Earthquake Research Center in Buffalo, NY back in the 1970s. That supposed research center took a complete back seat to other seismic researchers at places like Caltech and Stanford, where earthquakes actually occur from time to time. Unlike Buffalo, where no quake topping a meager 3.8 on the Richter Scale has been felt in more than 40 years, a full share of 4s and 5s routinely occurs around California.

 

But few things rankle Republicans in red states like California’s Clean Air Act waiver, which has given it authority since 1970 to make its own smog laws and regulations. This has resulted in advances from the catalytic converter to hybrid gas/electric cars like the Toyota Prius, many Honda Civics and a wide variety of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids that run about 30 to 40 miles on electric power before reverting to hybrid status.

 

No doubt, California’s rules have made cars cost more. That’s been generally accepted here under the notion that clean air costs something in a state whose biggest urban centers sit in coastal basins where prevailing winds often blow smog inland to areas where it can essentially pile up and thicken against mountains or substantial hills.

 

So far, no California governor has been ousted over the cost of living in more than 50 years of imposing anti-smog rules that make vehicles and some other goods more expensive. Polls show most Californians accept it’s the price of less emphysema, asthma and other smog-related diseases. The state’s powerful, appointive Air Resources Board now regulates not only vehicles, but industrial emissions and many commercial products, banning – for one example – most leaf blowers. Other state agencies here use similar priorities to promote things like solar and wind energy.

 

Meanwhile, other states including large automotive markets like Pennsylvania and New York accept a lot of California’s reasoning. Fully 17 states and the District of Columbia automatically adopt California smog rules some years after they take effect here.

 

Because carmakers want to construct and sell products for use everywhere, they often build to California standards, making vehicles more expensive everywhere and not just here, where clean cars are more often equated with healthy air.

 

This offends many red state politicians, since the automatic adopters mostly include Democratic-leaning states.

 

They appear most rankled by California’s plan to ban sales of new gasoline-only cars and trucks after 2035. “Every state would lose options – whether you live in California or not,” griped Wyoming’s Republican Sen. John Barrasso, whose state is a major oil pumper.

 

So the latest tactic in the war on California has been an attempt to repeal California’s unique smog-fighting authority. Trump tried this in his first term, but was held up by lawsuits. It’s doubtful that will work this time. Chances are, the state’s powers will at least be dented.

 

But it's doubtful Trump and other Republicans will be satisfied with just this, if they manage it. Which means the war on California will likely persist as long as Republicans control either Congress or the White House.

 

 

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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