What Trump’s Executive Orders Mean for California

President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on Jan. 21. Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images

President Donald Trump issued an unprecedented number of executive orders in the initial hours of his second term in office, and some policies, including those related to gender, the border, and other issues, could have a profound impact on California, according to supporters and critics alike.

The fires burning in Southern California were brought up by the president during his inaugural address and were mentioned as points of concern for more emergency orders he said were coming soon.

“[W]e are watching fires still tragically burn from weeks ago without even a token of defense,” Trump said. “They’re raging through the houses and communities, even affecting some of the wealthiest and most powerful individuals in our country, some of whom are sitting here right now.”

Noting the challenges facing thousands of individuals who lost their homes, he said help is on the way.

“Everyone is unable to do anything about it,” Trump said. “That’s going to change.”

During a press conference regarding infrastructure investments, he promised to “take care of Los Angeles” and mentioned plans to visit the city soon, possibly on Jan. 24.

Trump criticized the state’s water management policies for exacerbating fire danger.

“I think they’re dead politically. What they’ve done, they’ve destroyed the city,” he said.

The president said water from the Pacific Northwest that currently flows out to the ocean should be rerouted through California.

“Los Angeles has massive amounts of water available to it, all they have to do is turn the valve,” Trump said. “We’re going to be issuing an executive order demanding that they immediately let that water come down through California.”

A spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office told The Epoch Times by email Jan. 23 that there is no water shortage in Southern California and rejected the notion that turning a valve could help the state manage fire danger.

“Moving more water from Northern California would not have affected the fire response. Water operations in the Delta have nothing to do with the local fire response in Los Angeles,” the spokesperson said. 

Putting People Over Fish

One of Trump’s executive orders directs the secretaries of Commerce and the Interior to work with the National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, and the Bureau of Reclamation, among other agencies, to deliver more water from the San Joaquin Delta in Northern California to other areas across the state.

“My administration’s plan would have allowed enormous amounts of water to flow from the snow melt and rainwater in rivers in Northern California to beneficial use in the Central Valley and Southern California,” Trump wrote. “This catastrophic halt was allegedly in protection of the delta smelt and other species of fish.”

President Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on Jan. 21. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

He said that prioritizing the smelt led to water flowing into the Pacific Ocean instead of farms and communities throughout the Golden State.

First Lawsuits Filed

Among those actions signed in recent days, the Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship order prompted legal challenges from nearly two dozen states and some cities in a lawsuit filed Jan. 21 in a U.S. District Court in Massachusetts.

“The president’s executive order attempting to rescind birthright citizenship is blatantly unconstitutional and quite frankly, un-American,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta, one of the architects of the lawsuit, said in a statement. “The president has overstepped his authority by a mile with this order, and we will hold him accountable.”

Newsom called the decree “unconstitutional” in a statement.

Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at Shasta College on Dec. 16. Travis Gillmore/The Epoch Times

The president’s order reinterprets the 14th Amendment to disallow citizenship for individuals whose mother and father were not citizens or lawful permanent residents at the time of birth.

“We’re the only country in the world that does this with birthright ... and it’s just absolutely ridiculous,” Trump said while signing the order in the Oval Office on Jan. 20.

The president’s order was set to take effect Feb. 19, but a U.S. District Court in Seattle temporarily blocked the law with a restraining order issued Jan. 23.

Securing the Border

Through a series of actions, the president declared a national emergency at the southern border and initiated actions to deport violent criminals and stop the flow of illegal immigrants.

The secretary of Defense is directed to deploy the military and the National Guard to the border.

President Trump inspects border wall prototypes in San Diego on March 13, 2018. Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Agencies are also ordered to finish construction of the border wall and facilitate air missions.

Another order directs law enforcement officials to “take all necessary action to immediately repel, repatriate, and remove illegal aliens across the southern border of the United States,” according to a statement from the White House.

How this impacts California’s approximately 2 million illegal aliens, as calculated by the Public Policy Institute of California, remains to be seen.

Some state Democratic Party lawmakers pushed back on the president’s directives.

“California has no obligation to enforce Trump’s mass deportation policies & California will not do so,” state Sen. Scott Wiener posted Jan. 22 on X. “Trump can make all the threats in the world, but that reality won’t change.”

Another action highlights the threats to national security, public health, and safety, in addition to the cost burdens to states that provide resources to illegal immigrants.

California paid out almost $23 billion in benefits to illegal aliens in 2022, according to a study from the Federation for American Immigration Reform—a nonpartisan public interest organization based in Washington, D.C.

While reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity have surfaced in major cities nationwide, including in San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles, officials have not confirmed any operations in California to date.

Targeting Cartels

Trump signed an executive order designating cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, aimed at providing law enforcement more tools to tackle the sophisticated criminal networks.

“The cartels have engaged in a campaign of violence and terror throughout the Western Hemisphere that has not only destabilized countries with significant importance for our national interests but also flooded the United States with deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs,” the order reads. “The cartels functionally control, through a campaign of assassination, terror, rape, and brute force nearly all illegal traffic across the southern border of the United States.”

Cartels have become so powerful in Mexico that they “function as quasi-governmental entities,” according to the order.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) holds a news conference on his proposed legislation to designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, at the U.S. Capitol on March 8, 2023. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

“The cartels’ activities threaten the safety of the American people, the security of the United States, and the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere,” Trump wrote. “Their activities, proximity to, and incursions into the physical territory of the United States pose an unacceptable national security risk to the United States.”

He thereby declared an emergency and ordered U.S. agencies “to ensure the total elimination of these organizations’ presence in the United States and their ability to threaten the territory, safety, and security of the United States through their extraterritorial command-and-control structures.”

Some California law enforcement officials said the administration’s approach could give the state the support it needs to address the cartel problem plaguing some areas.

“I think it will help with getting federal assistance with drug trafficking organizations,” Mendocino County Sheriff Matt Kendall told The Epoch Times. “But the feds are hot and cold so often, they just don’t show up for problems that should be engaged in.”

Mitigating the damage inflicted by cartels through their distribution of fentanyl is a priority for the new administration.

Trump proposed 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and 10 percent tariffs on China—in addition to those already imposed—if the flow of fentanyl doesn’t stop.

Efficiency Cuts Expected

One action establishing the Department of Government Efficiency brings into question the future of the nearly 150,000 federal government employees—according to Pew Research Center data—in California.

Tasked with overseeing the department, Elon Musk has suggested at least $1 trillion in cuts are coming, and Trump ordered all employees back to the office.

“The question is going to be where are they going to go back to the office,” said Harry Klaff, U.S. president of real estate services company Avison Young.

Office vacancy rates have remained significantly higher than pre-pandemic totals, according to Klaff, and government employees working from home are contributing to the statistics.

Fewer workers present in the office is an issue affecting leasing rates, property valuations, and local economies, he said.

As the largest leaseholder in the nation, the General Services Administration oversees more than 360 million square feet across approximately 8,400 properties. In California, the agency leases government buildings and facilities, including courthouses and ports of entry, among others.

The Edward R. Roybal Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Los Angeles on May 26, 2023. Annie Wang/The Epoch Times

If the Trump administration aggressively terminates leases for underutilized buildings, the effect could be felt across the industry, according to experts.

“It could have an impact, but the impact could be highly localized to D.C,” Klaff said.

Federal funding for projects such as the state’s high-speed rail system could also be in jeopardy, as critics have described the project as a financial “boondoggle.”

Gender Ideology Nixed

Trump signed an order declaring that the U.S. government recognizes only two genders: male and female.

“Across the country, ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex have increasingly used legal and other socially coercive means to permit men to self-identify as women and gain access to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women, from women’s domestic abuse shelters to women’s workplace showers,” the order reads. “This is wrong.”

The directive declares that Title IX funding could be pulled from schools that allow males to compete in women’s sports and says that attempts to deny “biological reality” deprive women of their “dignity, safety, and well-being.”

“Accordingly, my administration will 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,” Trump wrote. “These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”

Sen. Wiener, an openly gay representative who champions transgender rights legislation, opposed the order.

“Trump’s [executive order] directs, as a matter of government power, that trans people don’t exist: That a person can’t transition to a gender different from their birth-assigned gender,” he posted Jan. 21 on X. “It’s hard to overstate how radical this is: A government dictate that a class of people simply doesn’t exist.”

State Prepares

California’s Legislature passed a bill Jan. 23, introduced as part of its special session called by the governor in December, giving the attorney general $25 million to challenge federal policies deemed unconstitutional or detrimental to the state.

However, Newsom has repeatedly expressed his willingness to partner with the Trump administration where possible.

“As our nation observes the peaceful transfer of power, we are reminded of the enduring principles that underpin our democracy: finding common ground and striving toward shared goals,” he said in a statement. “Where our shared principles are aligned, my administration stands ready to work with the Trump-Vance administration to deliver solutions and serve the nearly 40 million Californians we jointly represent.”