California AG Rob Bonta discusses battle with Trump administration during first 100 days
SACRAMENTO — On the 100th day of President Trump's second term in office, California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed his 16th lawsuit against the president's administration.
On Tuesday, California and nearly two dozen other states filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over drastic cuts to the AmeriCorps volunteer service agency.
Bonta's office has been busy filing lots of lawsuits against the Trump administration in response to a barrage of the president's executive orders.
"His actions have been very quick and high volume, so the speed and the volume is more than under Trump 1.0," Bonta said.
California sued Trump more than 120 times in his first term in office. Bonta says right now the state is on track to sue him double that amount, if the current rate persists.
"I didn't necessarily expect that," Bonta said of the volume of lawsuits filed so far during Mr. Trump's second term. "I'm not surprised or shocked by it either."
California's lawsuits in these first 100 days span from challenging Mr. Trump's executive order banning birthright citizenship to Elon Musk's role in government to tariffs.
"How do you prioritize what issues to tackle first?" I said Bonta.
"Honestly, the Trump administration determines if and when we sue," Bonta said. "If the Trump administration violates the law, we sue. If he doesn't, we don't."
Republican Assembly Leader James Gallagher opposes California's legal challenges to the Trump administration. He said he believes Mr. Trump and his administration have done "a great job" so far.
"He's moving with action on immigration. He's moving with action on our forests. He's bringing back logging," Gallagher said.
California Democrats approved so-called Trump-proofing measures ahead of the president's inauguration to set aside $25 million for legal funds in anticipation of lawsuits.
"But so far, you know, just roughly very little of that money has actually been spent yet, just because the process takes time to hire people," said Bonta, who added that his office has many job openings.
Bonta said that most of the early rulings during the Trump administration's first 100 days have been favorable for California, with judges granting temporary restraining orders in initial proceedings.
One early ruling that favored Mr. Trump saw a judge denying to grant the state a temporary restraining order challenging Elon Musk's power within the administration.
