Trump’s Attacks on California Are Shortsighted
LOS ANGELES—The president of the United States warns that California’s great cities are set to “destroy themselves” through unchecked homelessness and failed liberal policies. San Francisco is “in total violation” of unspecified pollution rules, and he will be “giving them a notice very soon.” Hollywood is “racist … really terrible.” The Golden State is guilty of “gross mismanagement” of its forests, its sanctuary cities are “ridiculous,” and its expansive approach to immigration has “put the entire nation at risk.”
Donald Trump’s relentless attacks on California—the latest delivered during a three-day swing through the state last week in which he announced he was revoking its ability to set its own tough auto-emissions standards—are nothing new for the 45th president. Indeed, they are nothing new in American politics, which has a venerable tradition of denouncing the nation’s left-most state as a haven for kooks, cranks, and crazy ideas.
“It’s a freebie for Trump” that energizes his base, says the veteran Republican pollster Whit Ayres. “It’s not like California’s going to turn
