Earlier this week, Donald Trump got into one of his bi-hourly Twitter wars with California Governor Gavin Newsom (a Democrat) over the state’s devastating wildfires.
Long story short, Trump threatened to revoke federal funding during an actual emergency.
It’s the latest argy-bargy in a long-running battle between the president and one of the country’s most progressive states. Here’s where the battle lines have been drawn:
Wildfires
Trump’s attempts to make the current wildfires — several of which are in unforested areas — about raking, is a red herring, but dates back to when he first threatened to withdraw funding during California’s deadliest ever wildfires last year.
Those fires, which killed 86 people, were found to be linked directly to global heating in a study by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Thus, Newsom’s snark.
Climate action
Clearly, climate action is a point of pride in the smog-filled Golden State, as even Republicans will tell you (g’day Arnold!).
As the White House continued to wind down environmental regulations on power plants and vehicles last year, then-governor Jerry Brown signed a 2045 zero-emissions electricity and net-emissions goal. The state also hit 34% renewables in 2018.
Healthcare
Whether it’s lawsuits or regulatory workarounds, California has worked repeatedly to stop Trump’s attempts to dilute Obamacare or — along with New York — abortion rights. Newsom also sledged Trump while expanding Medicade to young, unregistered immigrants, which brings us to …
Immigration
Since election night, California immediately rejected Trump’s anti-immigration stance and in 2017 passed a “sanctuary law” — SB 54 (aka the California Values Act) — to limit how local law enforcement cooperates with federal counterparts on immigration law.
Taxation
Pointedly, Newsom signed a law in July requiring all presidential candidates to disclose income tax returns before listing their names on primary ballots, a law that was struck down by a federal judge in October.
Crikey is committed to hosting lively discussions. Help us keep the conversation useful, interesting and welcoming. We aim to publish comments quickly in the interest of promoting robust conversation, but we’re a small team and we deploy filters to protect against legal risk. Occasionally your comment may be held up while we review, but we’re working as fast as we can to keep the conversation rolling.
The Crikey comment section is members-only content. Please subscribe to leave a comment.
The Crikey comment section is members-only content. Please login to leave a comment.