Today, Donald Trump made his first-ever visit to California as president, and the response was less than positive.
Trump was in town to inspect prototypes for his infamous border wall and to attend a Hollywood fundraiser, and advocates made it clear that he was not welcome in the state that delivered more than 4 million votes against him in 2016. California’s leaders have been dedicated to protecting their state against Trump’s agenda, on issues ranging from immigration to climate change to taxes to health care. Meanwhile, the Trump Administration has repeatedly tried (and failed) to come after California policies, repeatedly losing legal cases in California courts, with Jeff Sessions filing a lawsuit against some of California’s safe cities policies last week.
During protests and rallies today, advocates and leaders — including state Senate President pro tem Kevin de León — called Trump out for attacking immigrants while doing nothing to help Dreamers. All of California’s statewide leaders have condemned the Trump Administration’s agenda against the state and its immigrants. Advocates also called attention to the stupidity and wastefulness of Trump’s border wall. As Vicki B. Gaubeca, Interim Director of the Southern Border Communities Coalition, said in a statement:
For the past year, Trump has been starring in his own reality show and although he stepped into the reality of our southern border today, he still fails to see the true needs of the southern border region. Instead of wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on medieval tactics, Trump needs to #RevitalizeNotMilitarize our region so we can thrive in the 21st century.
View photos from protests against Trump’s visit to the Golden State:
