Politics
Donald Trump has vowed revenge on California. These are his specific threats

By Sara Libby, Molly Burke
Nov 7, 2024

Donald Trump vilified California throughout his campaign, and now that he has secured a second presidential term, it’s possible he could carry out some of the threats he has leveled at the state.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, who could become the national face of Democratic resistance, has voiced concern over the potential danger of Trump’s presidency for the Golden State. Trump, while campaigning, has derided California as a “paradise lost,” and blamed the state’s Democratic leaders — referred to as “radical left lunatics” — and large immigrant population for its supposed decline. ... Trump has promised significant changes to the immigration system and wants to loosen climate policies.

Meanwhile, Project 2025, a blueprint published by conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation, has outlined substantial changes it believes the next president should carry out, including severely restricting reproductive rights and LGBTQ protections that California has sought to safeguard.

Trump has repeatedly denied having read the document or aligning himself with its authors, but many of his policies overlap with those in the nearly 1,000-page transitional plan. At least 140 people who worked in the Trump administration helped create the plan, a CNN review found.

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