CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2025 OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“IT’S LESS OVERT, BUT TRUMP’S ‘WAR ON CALIFORNIA’ CARRIES ON”
It’s not exactly
the 100 years war, but Donald Trump’s undeclared ‘War on California’ carries on
this fall just as intently as ever before.
No, it’s not as
obvious as when he defied the governor and several judges to send National
Guard and Marine troops by the thousands to quell a riot that wasn’t.
It isn’t merely
that the count of California lawsuits against him is higher today than at the
same point in his first presidential term. In some cases, Trump lets other
Republicans carry his water and in others he is harming California more than
other states with his nationwide moves, including the tariffs he has (possibly
illegally) imposed on California’s largest trade partners.
These things will
not likely knock California off its pedestal as the world’s No. 4 economy, just
ahead of India and just behind Germany. For one thing, the large amount of
rebuilding construction that will soon follow last January’s Los Angeles County
firestorms will keep the cost of goods created here higher than before,
suggesting a potential move up in the worldwide economic rankings.
But make no
mistake, through a wide series of moves, Trump is doing what he can to make
life less pleasant, more expensive and even less truthful for Californians.
Start with the
Clean Air Act, where Trump coerced every Republican in the House of
Representatives to vote last spring for elimination of the California waiver in
the Clean Air Act of 1970. That’s the provision that allowed this state to
clean up its air (not completely, by far) through measures like catalytic
converters and electric vehicles, pioneered here and often resented elsewhere.
Such resentment was why 35 Democrats voted with the House GOP.
Trump tried for
this repeatedly in his first term, but was voted out before he could finish,
rendering moot any legal cases surrounding his effort. Now it will be up to
Democrats in the Senate to stop this effort to dirty up California air.
There is also
significant legal debate on this. The Government Accountability Office (GAO)
has stated that waivers like California’s are not subject to congressional
review, suggesting Congress lacks the authority to overturn them. If this
measure goes through, with a smirking Trump signing it, that issue would be
decided by the courts.
But that’s only
one move against California. Here are a few others (not the complete list):
n Termination of a study on guaranteed
income. Trump halted a $9 million UC San Francisco clinical trial providing
$500 monthly to 300 low-income Black young adults that aimed to learn whether
this tactic can cut crime and homelessness.
n An executive order to Attorney General Pam
Bondi to halt enforcement of state laws on climate change, explicitly
challenging California’s cap-and-trade program that, among other things,
produces electric and natural gas bill credits of about $50 per customer twice
a year.
n Another order opening floodgates in two
Central California reservoirs, supposedly aiming to address wildfire issues.
But there were no fires near those reservoirs and none of the water reached any
fire area, most of it flowing into depleted San Joaquin Valley aquifers.
n Trying to eliminate past California
atrocities from the Smithsonian Institute and all other government-sponsored
exhibits purporting to deal with all aspects of California history.
n Ignoring the bragging he voiced while
visiting the January fire zones and again in an Oval Office meeting with Gov.
Gavin Newsom – to provide quick federal aid to wildfire survivors. Reality is there
has been no movement in Congress toward passing California’s request for $40
billion in fire aid.
Taken together,
these moves compose an attack on California’s ability to control its own
environment and fix its problems with tax money paid by this state’s citizens,
who annually put far more into the federal treasury than they get back.
They would
instead put this state on equal or even lesser footing than
Republican-controlled states like West Virginia and Alabama, where smog and
water safety issues have never been taken seriously, as they are here.
-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
Suggested pullout
quote: “These moves are major parts of an attack on California’s ability to
control its own environment and fix its problems.”
