How Trump’s flurry of executive actions could affect the Golden State
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Good morning. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.
- How will Trump’s executive orders affect California?
- Southern California is about to get its first rain in months. Here’s what it means for the fires.
- These 26 hiking trails burned in the Eaton fire.
- And here’s today’s e-newspaper.
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27 executive orders (and counting)
There was never any mystery about how Donald Trump would flex his presidential power once he returned to the White House. He made it clear throughout his campaign that his administration would crack down on immigration, roll back protections for transgender people and reverse environmental policies, to name a few.
On Day 1 of his second term, he delivered on many of those vows, signing 27 executive orders and a slate of other actions that swung the federal government’s political pendulum back to the right after four years of Joe Biden’s policies.
Trump’s ideology was always on a collision course with California’s progressivism. Now that he’s back in office, the impending battles will probably be fought in the courtroom.
Here’s a brief overview of a few key actions Trump took, how Californians could be affected and how civil rights advocates and state leaders are responding.
Climate and energy
Trump signed a flurry of orders that aim to undo Biden-era environmental protections and boost U.S. fossil fuel production. He also pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement (again), a legally binding treaty adopted by more than 150 countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit the cataclysmic effects of human-caused climate change.
“Trump is an ardent promoter of the fossil fuel industry and outspoken climate change denier,” Times reporters Tony Briscoe and Karen Kaplan wrote Tuesday. “Over the coming weeks, his executive actions have the potential to erase or significantly delay crucial portions of the Golden State’s environmental agenda.”
Chief among those: The Golden State’s nation-leading emissions standards, which Trump ordered dismantled on Monday.
“We will revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry and keeping my sacred pledge to our great American autoworkers,” he said in the Capitol Rotunda. “In other words, you’ll be able to buy the car of your choice.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom had a brief response to Trump’s decision to renege on the Paris agreement.
“If you don’t believe in science, believe your own damn eyes,” Newsom wrote in a Bluesky post, accompanied by photos of firefighters battling the devastating L.A. wildfires.
Immigration
An estimated 10.6 million people living in California were born outside the U.S., according to the most recent federal data compiled by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California. The state had roughly 1.8 million undocumented residents as of 2022, according to the Pew Research Center.
That makes it abundantly clear that Trump’s plan to conduct “the largest mass deportation program in history” will be felt across the state.
Administration officials have signaled that raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could start this week. Trump also revoked a Biden-era policy that barred ICE agents from entering schools, healthcare facilities and places of worship to make arrests.
Trump also signed an order to revoke birthright citizenship, arguing that the 14th Amendment “has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States.”
That executive action was met with swift legal reaction. California joined the city of San Francisco and more than 20 other states to sue the federal government, calling Trump’s order unconstitutional.
“I have one message for President Trump: I’ll see you in court,” California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said during a Tuesday news conference. Bonta called the order “unconstitutional and quite frankly un-American.”
“The president has overstepped his authority by a mile with this order, and we will hold him accountable,” he added.
Trump’s immigration-related actions also included declaring a national emergency and an order to deploy the military to the southern border, which brought swift criticism from immigration advocates.
“A national emergency declaration does not allow the Trump administration to skirt core constitutional rights afforded to all individuals within the United States,” the National Immigration Law Center wrote in an analysis of Trump’s actions. The group added that sending troops to the border “will almost certainly [result in] more families separated, more migrants harmed and killed, and more disruptions to the economy from unnecessary border restrictions and closures.”
LGBTQ+ rights
Trump’s Day 1 executive actions included an order that federal agencies will recognize only two sexes that are “not changeable.”
The order is framed as an effort by the administration “to defend women’s rights and protect freedom of conscience by using clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.”
He also reversed orders on LGBTQ+ rights issued by his predecessor, including some aimed at protecting people from discrimination “no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation.”
“The Trump administration is likely to face challenges over the executive actions,” my colleague Emily Alpert Reyes reported this week. “Kevin Jennings, chief executive of the LGBTQ+ civil rights organization Lambda Legal, said in a statement that many of the changes called for in the executive orders would take time to roll out, but ‘we will vigilantly monitor and be ready to challenge when they take effect.’”
Will these orders be implemented?
That’s the big question that’s gruelingly TBD.
California leaders have been gearing up for another round of legal battles with Trump’s White House, just as they waged throughout his first term.
Bonta had already been strategizing what his office could implement in the event of another Trump presidency, prepping a potential barrage of environmental, immigration and civil rights lawsuits.
“Whether Trump’s directives will survive and how quickly they will be implemented remains unclear,” The Times’ Kevin Rector explained. “Survival of the most controversial and legally dubious decrees will depend on the courts, experts said. Implementation will depend in part on how quickly Trump can get his Cabinet appointments confirmed by the Senate and stand up his new government, they said.”
Today’s top stories
Southern California is about to get its first rain in months
- Hope for diminished wildfire risk may finally be on the horizon as a small amount of rain is in the forecast.
- The expected rain will snap L.A.’s dry streak, but it won’t snuff out fire season, forecasters say.
- With rain likely to come this weekend, Mayor Karen Bass signed an emergency executive order to help the city prepare its burn areas.
What rebuilding could look like after the L.A. fires
- Survivors of the 2017 Tubbs fire in Santa Rosa have a message for L.A. fire victims: You can’t imagine it now, but it is possible to recover.
- In the rush to rebuild, one topic is taboo: What should be built differently — or not at all?
- If you lost your home or business in the wildfires, here’s what to do next.
How the L.A. fires have affected Hollywood
- As film and TV production in L.A. lurches back to life, entertainment executives are grappling with a new concern: how the devastating wildfires could add to the already high cost of filming in Southern California.
- Even before the L.A. fires, Hollywood jobs were hard to find. Will the work ever come back?
- Here are the famed movie and TV locations destroyed in the Southern California fires.
What else is going on
- Although the worst of the Santa Ana winds appear to have passed, Southern California is not out of the woods yet when it comes to fire risk.
- Families of Monterey Park shooting victims sue the gunman’s estate, and the dance studio where the attack took place.
- Sen. Amy Klobuchar says she used her access to nudge Trump on L.A. wildfire recovery.
- Elon Musk has dismissed concerns that he made Nazi salutes at an inauguration event.
- Oscar nominations 2025: Columnist Glenn Whipp makes predictions in the key categories.
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Commentary and opinions
- If anyone has advice on how to stand up to Trump and his vowed crackdown on illegal immigration, it’s Pablo Alvarado, columnist Gustavo Arellano writes.
- Columnist Michael Hiltzik takes a look at the Bakersfield raids that showed how Trump’s immigration policies will sow chaos.
- How Donald Trump’s second inauguration outdid the cruelty and excesses of his first, writes columnist Robin Abcarian.
- California Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers have overlooked the first and most important line of defense for vulnerable immigrants: public defenders, writes guest columnist Cyn Yamashiro.
- After the fires, must we get rid of our flammable eucalyptus and palm trees? Maybe not, the Editorial Board writes.
This morning’s must-reads
Western Altadena got evacuation order many hours after Eaton fire exploded. 17 people died there. Records, radio logs and interviews show that residents living west of Lake Avenue were not told to evacuate via electronic alerts until many hours after the Eaton fire started. Residents said they were stunned at how long it took to get the evacuation order, and by then many homes in the area were on fire.
Other must reads
- AI, drones and sensors: How technology could help battle future fires.
How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected].
For your downtime
Going out
- 🥾To better understand where you can hike responsibly (and what areas you must avoid), here’s a list of 26 hiking trails that burned in the Eaton fire.
- 🎭Sanaz Toossi’s ‘Wish You Were Here’ at South Coast Rep traces the faltering dreams of young Iranian women.
- 🙆Five easy exercises for your shoulders and chest to alleviate desk job aches and pains.
Staying in
- 📺 Need a distraction from the real world? Try a British conspiracy thriller and a Swedish satire.
- 📖Imani Perry’s new book, “Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People,” highlights how blues (the colors and the sounds) tell the story of African America.
- 🥣 Here’s a recipe for kohlrabi and apple slaw with yogurt and cumin.
- ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games.
A question for you: What act of kindness makes you smile every time you think of it?
Sharon Wells writes: “Hello! One morning while standing in a Starbucks line at LAX, there was a man in front of me and two US service members in fatigues in front of him at the register. Before the service members could pay for their order, the man in front of me handed the cashier his credit card to pay for them. Observing that was heartwarming and while I waited for my order next to the generous man, I told him and thanked him. Thinking of it always reminds me that just one simple act of kindness has such a positive ripple effect — for the recipients, giver, and observers.”
Email us at [email protected], and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.
And finally ... your photo of the day
Show us your favorite place in California! Send us photos you have taken of spots in California that are special — natural or human-made — and tell us why they’re important to you.
Today’s great photo is from Terry Vickers of Lakeport: Mt. Konocti. Terry writes: “My view this morning as my dogs and I chase the sunrise.”
Have a great day, from the Essential California team
Ryan Fonseca, reporter
Defne Karabatur, fellow
Andrew Campa, Sunday reporter
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Hunter Clauss, multiplatform editor
Christian Orozco, assistant editor
Stephanie Chavez, deputy metro editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters
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