Newsom pushes for $25 million fund to fight Trump's domestic agenda in court

Gavin Newsom plans to oppose Donald Trump's domestic agenda. The California governor is working in conjunction with state lawmakers to approve a $25 million fund, which would be used to legally fight the Republican's initiatives. Specifically, the funds would be used to fight court battles on immigration, environmental and abortion issues.

The Democratic governor, who is emerging as one of the party's potential 2028 candidates, defended the approval of the budget item during the first day of the local Legislature's special session.

"The new litigation fund will help safeguard critical funding for disaster relief, health care, and other vital services that millions of Californians depend on daily," Newsom said, adding that his state plans to "defend against unlawful federal actions that could jeopardize not only tangible resources and the state’s economy."

Currently, the California Assembly has 60 Democrats and only 19 Republicans, while the state Senate has 30 Democrats to nine Republicans. Should the governor's initiative pass, both the local Department of Justice and other federal agencies would gain access to these funds to fight Trump's agenda in the courts.

During the first Trump Administration, the state of California sued the federal government about 120 times, spending a total of $42 million. Therefore, this $25 million translates to a nearly 50% reduction from the previous budget.

California against Trump's deportation plan

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA), who was initially appointed by Newsom after Kamala Harris' election as vice president in 2022, recently assured that California would not help Trump with his immigration agenda.

"There’s an important distinction here. No state’s government, not Texas, not California, not any state in the nation has a constitutional authority to impose federal immigration law. That is the responsibility of the federal government," he told Major Garrett told Padilla on CBS's 'Face the Nation' program.

"Let the federal government do the federal government’s job, but have state and local officials do the state and local officials’ job. There doesn’t have to be a conflict unless that’s what Trump wants," the Democratic senator added.

As for Trump, he repeatedly promised to declare a national emergency and use the military to carry out mass deportations. In California, there is a 2017 law that prohibits state law enforcement from using resources to assist federal forces in immigration matters.