California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said he and his team reviewed former President Trump’s second-term agenda in detail to prepare for a possible onslaught of environmental, immigration and civil rights lawsuits in case Trump would beat President Biden.
“We can’t be caught off guard,” Bonta said in an interview Thursday in Washington. “Fortunately and unfortunately, we have four years of Trump 1.0. We know certain movements and priorities; we expect them to be different.
Bonta, a Democrat who is mulling a run for governor, said he reviewed the work of his predecessor, Xavier Becerra, who filed more than 100 lawsuits against Trump’s policies before leaving office to become secretary to Biden’s Health and Human Services. Bonta and his deputies are also closely examining a document drafted by the Heritage Foundation, a Trump-aligned think tank, known as “Project 2025,” which proposes a blueprint for Trump’s second-term policy goals.
California’s Democratic politicians have long seen themselves as a bulwark against conservative policies, even more so than during Trump’s presidency, when the state became the de facto headquarters of the so-called resistance. The challenges to Trump, while popular with many supporters, sometimes put Democrats in the awkward position of asserting states’ rights after long advocating for standards that apply across the country. Critics said the relentless prosecutions were politically motivated and distracted from the attorney general’s other duties, including consumer protection.
These challenges also sometimes helped Trump politically, because they allowed him to use the state as a foil when he failed to implement some of his programs.
As states become increasingly polarized, attorneys general in red and blue states now play a leading role in disputes with the federal government when it is led by the opposing political party. The Obama administration was sued 58 times by Republican attorneys general, according to a tally compiled by Paul Nolette, a political science professor at Marquette University. Since Biden has been in office, Republican Party attorneys general have filed 55 lawsuits against his administration’s policies.
These numbers represent a substantial increase from previous administrations. And the lawyers usually won. Republican attorneys general beat Obama in court 64 percent of the time, and they beat Biden at a rate of 76 percent, according to Nolette. Democratic attorneys general, who have sued Trump 155 times, have won 83% of the cases.
Bonta highlighted several efforts to thwart Trump, including former Gov. Jerry Brown’s decision to sign the Paris climate accord after Trump abandoned it “to maintain that leadership role in the world and that we will continue climate action.”
Becerra has challenged Trump’s power on several fronts, including climate, health care, immigration, gun control and civil rights. He has won many of those battles, including Trump’s plan to repeal an Obama administration order to protect so-called Dreamers from deportation. Trump abandoned plans to add a citizenship question to the census after a multistate lawsuit that included California.
A second Trump term would also likely bring new challenges over abortion laws, LGBTQ+ rights and the rights of parents and children to seek transgender treatment, Bonta said.
“So there are a lot of contingencies and then, you know, looking at the different constitutional clauses and the building blocks of the Constitution that would provide the ground and the basis for our potential challenges,” he said.
There are limits to the legal strategy, which even Bonta acknowledges. The federal government controls immigration enforcement, Trump’s top priority. Although states can deny some aid to the federal government, they cannot protect immigrants who are in the country illegally from deportation.
“If it’s the federal government’s job, they can do it,” he said.
The state can provide legal assistance and ensure that people receive due process, but “immigration has long been an area of federal law.”
Asked about Bonta’s plans, Anna Kelly, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, said: “California liberals will do anything to widely spread their failed, fringe left-wing agenda, but they will not stop President Trump from making America. great again.
Bonta was in Washington for an event with Vice President Kamala Harris, another of her predecessors, to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. He acknowledged he was considering a run for governor in 2026 and said he would make his decision after the November election. He could also run for another term as attorney general.
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