Every Single Time California Went Completely Against Trump

California is moving slowly to raise the minimum wage, 50 cents at a time. According to the Sacramento Bee, California is one of many states that raised their minimum wage at the beginning of the year to create a raise in wages that totals nearly $1.5 billion a year. By 2022, California will be at a $15 per hour minimum wage which is far beyond the federal standard of $7.25. 

Donald Trump hasn't explicitly stated his opinion on raising the minimum wage. While Trump has sad that people are being paid too much, he's suggested eliminating the federal minimum wage, and he's said that the federal minimum wage should be raised to $10 an hour. More states are likely to follow in the footsteps of California in this instance. 

Keeping up with his strong policy against illegal immigration, Trump announced he would be deploying the National Guard in various borders across the country in April 2018. At first, Jerry Brown was relatively compliant with this request. He agreed to send troops to the border, with the caveat they would not participate in immigration enforcement, and Trump even praised Brown on Twitter for this move. However, on April 16, 2018, California's National Guard informed Homeland Security the soldiers would not comply with requests to monitor surveillance cameras, perform maintenance, adn transport US border agents. The move incensed Trump, who sent out an angry tweet the following day condemning Brown's actions. 

In an attempt to ensure that government lands stay in the hands of the government and aren't transferred to a private owner, a legislature was drafted to keep California's national parks safe. In 2017, Governor Brown signed a law stating that the California state government receives the first right of refusal on any land that's being sold by federal officials. This may seem like an easy way for the government to make a land grab but it's actually the best way to make sure that no national parks or sites of historical relevance are sold off.

In September 2017, the Trump administration announced plans to strip federal protection from 10 national monuments. While only one of the sites in the proposed plan is in California, it still shows the possibilities of what's to come if states don't protect their national parks. According to the LA Times, under Trump's proposed plan multiple national parks would see their surface areas being decreased immensely. 

In a move that's directly at odds with the Trump administration's doubling down on the use of fossil fuels, California has been leaning into clean energy with unrivaled vigor. The Huffington Post reports that the state's success with solar and clean energies comes from their commitment to making sure that clean energy businesses can be profitable. Legislators have even introduced PACE financing (Property Assessed Clean Energy) that allows home owners to have solar panels placed on their homes and rather than have the homeowner pay the fees upfront they can simply add it as a line item on their property tax bill. While this isn't a perfect fix, it's certainly a step in the right direction of getting more clean energy into the world. 

The introduction of PACE and other clean energy bills has to be a slap in the face to President Trump who loves to tout his tenuous connection to the coal industry every chance he gets, despite its lack of sustainability. 

In September 2017, California sued the Trump administration in order to keep construction on the wall at a stand still until the the contractors and government are in compliance with the EPA. In fact, the suit calls for the administration to cease from “engaging in any and all planning [and] design" until the EPA regulations are met. 

President Trump has been talking about his proposed border wall for a long time. The proposed "see through" border wall wouldn't just effect people living across the Mexican border, it could also possibly change everything for people who live on the American side of the border. There are already walls and fences at border crossings between southern California and Mexico. If Trump actually gets his wall the surface area of the barricade will be expanded and most of the construction will likely occur on areas that would be impractical for border defense. 

The Paris Agreement is a worldwide accord essentially stating that every nation who agrees to the treaty will work together to lower emissions and shrink the world's carbon footprint. In 2017 President Trump pulled America out of the agreement but California lawmakers made sure to let the world know where they stood on the issue. California joined New York and Washington in order to bring the country to "Paris compliance" regardless of what the Trump administration wants to do. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said, "Our message is clear to the world: Americans are with you, even if the White House isn't." 

When Trump pulled out of the Paris Agreement he claimed that it was due to the heavier financial burden being placed on America that was absent from smaller countries and that America was tired of being a laughingstock of the UN. "We don't want other countries and other leaders to laugh at us anymore." He has also noted that any action by the federal government to halt or even slow down scientific progress was both "dangerous and myopic."