SACRAMENTO, Calif. — With Donald Trump’s imminent return to the White House, California is poised to return to a familiar role: that of the beating heart of the resistance.

The state’s ruling Democrats, who for years portrayed the president-elect as an existential threat, quickly signaled a return to power. the pugilistic posture of the Trump 1.0 era, when California presented itself loud and clear as the political and cultural counterweight to Washington.

“Trump mentioned that his campaign was a campaign to protect America,” Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas told POLITICO on election night. “What you can expect is that California will do everything in its power to protect America from Donald Trump.”

The groundwork for a series of legal challenges has been in the works for more than two years, since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wadesaid California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who tasked his team with writing a brief against a possible national abortion ban. Since then, his office has been preparing arguments on “nearly every issue” that could arise under a second Trump administration, from gun control to how federal agencies issue regulations.

“If he takes office and follows the law … then we don’t have to do anything,” Bonta said. “But if he breaks the law, as he said, as he said, Project 2025 says he will, then we will be ready. We have studied in detail in which court we should file a complaint.

The antagonism between the president-elect and California cuts both ways. Trump has always been hostile to the most populous state in the country, threatening to suspend disaster aidleveling baseless accusations of election fraud and making disturbing threats against California luminaries such as the former president Nancy Pelosi and elected senator Adam Schiffwhom he described as “enemies from within”.

His relationship with Gov. Gavin Newsom, which had moments of cooperation during his first term, has only become more combative, with Trump now almost exclusively deriding the governor as “the new scum.”

Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher predicted that Democrats, who dominate Sacramento, will “try to establish themselves as the anti-Trump state” — a move he said would be “a major mistake.” “The way they responded to the first Trump administration was about politics and not really about looking out for California’s best interests,” he said.

At the time, even some of the most ardent architects of California’s opposition reported a sense of “resistance fatigue” during Trump’s first term, lamenting that the cascade of lawsuits, laws and resolutions Symbolism sometimes distracted attention from other pressing issues within state borders, such as the high cost of living. But the political incentives were compelling in this deep blue state. A number of California politicians like Schiff, Rep. Eric Swalwell and impeachment instigator Tom Steyer gained national notoriety — along with the TV news appearances and fundraising jolts that accompany it — by taking on Trump.

Some of California’s loudest anti-Trump voices took a quieter tone as the election results came in.

Schiff, who used his central role in Trump’s first impeachment and the hearings into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol to gain a seat in the U.S. Senate, I didn’t mention Trump by name during his somber victory speech on election night. Trump, however, loomed large in the subtext of Schiff’s promise to lead “the big fights to protect our freedoms and protect our democracy.”

Newsom made no public comments on election night as the state’s Democrats reeled from Vice President Kamala Harris’ resounding defeat and a red wave that swept much of the country.

The governor will have a heavy hand in shaping the contours of California’s opposition. One of his party’s leading national figures after Harris’ defeat, he has enormous influence in deciding whether Sacramento’s agenda will be dominated by opposition to Trump or will be about tackling crises state challenges such as homelessness and housing affordability.

There have been informal discussions that the governor would call a special session in response to Trump’s victory, according to a senior legislative aide who was granted anonymity to explain the potential outcomes before the presidency was called for Trump. But, the person said, no plans have been confirmed by the governor. Newsom’s office had no comment.

For months, authorities sought to “put to the test” the state of California. climate policies and consolidate its disaster preparedness in anticipation of an adversarial federal government — a stark contrast to Trump’s shock victory in 2016, which left state leaders scrambling for an answer.

Rivas, the Assembly speaker, said the state would be prepared to forcefully protect its immigrant population, which could face major upheaval under Trump’s proposed mass deportation program.

“We will do everything we can to ensure that people feel protected and welcomed,” Rivas said, while declining to discuss specific preparations.

Pre-planning can only go so far. While Bonta will turn to the courts to try to thwart the president’s agenda, as his predecessor Xavier Becerra did dozens of times during Trump’s first term, he could encounter a frosty reception from the Conservative-leaning Supreme Court.

“One thing we had before was the courts, and the courts stopped a lot of the madness and a lot of the most grotesque anti-civil rights measures were found to be unconstitutional,” David said Campos, a San Francisco progressive activist and vice chair of the state Democratic Party. “I’m not sure we have that yet.”

There is also no unanimity among Democrats on whether they should follow the same resistance agenda they put in place eight years ago.

Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, a Los Angeles Democrat who served in the Legislature during Trump’s first term, said she expected her state’s leaders to take a similarly assertive stance against Trump, but this time “on steroids”.

“I want the state legislature, the attorney general and the governor to come after him,” Kamlager-Dove said. “They will have the support of the California delegation” in Congress.

But others said the party would be better off if it focused less on reacting to Trump and more on improving the quality of life for Californians.

“The best way to lead the resistance is to demonstrate that in addition to being the fourth largest economy in the world, we can reduce the poverty rate in a state that has the highest effective poverty rate,” said Antonio Villaraigosa, former Los Angeles Democrat. Angeles mayor running for governor in 2026. “The best way to lead the resistance is to say our public schools are the best in the country, or that we’re moving toward that goal,” he said.

Another candidate for governor, former state Comptroller Betty Yee, said California officials should be wary of the dangers posed by a hostile Trump administration.

But, she warned: “We need to be attentive to Californians and what they face every day. I don’t know if they’re going to be as patient with our resistance when they’re just trying to make things work in their lives.

Tyler Katzenberger contributed to this report.