In preparing for Trump’s return to power, California Attorney General Rob Bonta sounds like he’s ready to sue the Trump administration at every turn, vowing “We won’t be flat-footed come January,” particularly on mass deportation attempts.
The Chronicle has a story today saying that President-Elect Trump has “vowed revenge on California” in his second term, mostly in terms of mass deportations, abortion rights, and climate policies. In response, Governor Gavin Newsom has called the state legislature into a special session in December to supposedly “Trump-proof” state laws, according to the AP.
But California Attorney General Rob Bonta is not waiting until December. Bonta was out at SF’s Crissy Field in front of the Golden Gate Bridge Thursday, and KGO reported beforehand that he intended to share his plans to fight Trump’s agenda in California.
“We’ve been here before, we lived through Trump 1.0. We know what he's capable of, we know what plans he has in store,” Bonta said in the press conference above. “We won’t be flat-footed come January.”
He noted that former state Attorney General (AG) Javier Becerra sued the Trump administration many times, with around a hundred lawsuits, and Bonta said California won a “super majority” of those lawsuits. And there are probably more to come, as Bonta has been in contact with other state AGs, and they’ve already drafted their lawsuits.
“We’ve been talking for months with attorneys general throughout the nation, preparing, planning, strategizing for the possibility for this day,” he noted, mentioning immigration, civil rights, and gun laws. “We expect certain actions to come from the federal government, and certain litigation that we will take in response.”
But Bonta says he’s most zeroed-in on disrupting Trump’s plans for mass deportations.
“We're well aware of the articulated action regarding mass deportations,” Bonta declared. “We have put in place many protections for our immigrants, and we are dusting off those important laws to make sure that we reinforce them and make them more robust, and that we are ready.
“I can promise to the undocumented immigrant community in California that I and my team have been thinking about you for months. We have planned for you, we have prepared for you, We have put in place steps to take, when to take them, and we will do everything in out power, and use the full authority of the office to protect you.”
Reporters pointed out that Trump said he’d be using the US military to carry out these mass deportations.
“The military is not appropriate to use for mass deportations. Does that mean he won’t try? It doesn't mean he won’t try. His brand is to do unlawful things,” Bonta responded. “If he doesn’t do a single thing that’s unlawful, there won’t be a single lawsuit. I very much doubt that, based on what he said he plans to do.”
“California did not vote for him,” Bonta concluded. “We rejected Trump here in California. That is consistent with who we are and our values.”
Bonta’s current term lasts until the 2026 elections (Trump’s midterms, by the way), so Bonta may not be AG through this whole coming four-year Trump term. But Bonta seems to realize that his odds of 2026 reelection — or his run for governor that year? — depends on how much of a pain in Donald Trump’s ass he can be.
Image: @AGRobBonta via Twitter
