That is a lot harder to do, within the bounds of the law at least.
Ironically, though, California is one of a small handful of states that allow for recall elections of all elected office holders, up to and including the Governor. Recall that Arnold Schwarzenegger became Governer there due to a recall election. So if his goal is to start ejecting Governors he doesn’t like, California is a good place to start.
But Newsom has already survived one recall attempt, and since he seems to be the Next One Up for Democrats to nominate in 2028, Trump may not be eager to run a recall campaign that might lose, because Newsom will remind everyone that he “beat Trump” on the campaign trail. (And there is no guarantee that Musk won’t start tossing money at Newsom, who is enough of a schemer to accept it.)
This might be one area where our layered system of government is an advantage, though, because State governments have real power that is separate from the Federal Government. The Founders valued this, too: the 10th Amendment in the Bill of Rights explicitly says that any power not explicitly delegated to the Federal government belongs to the States (and to the people).
So even this President, who aims to rule as a dictator, can’t exercise every power unless the States roll over and let him. And say what you will about Newsom and his pivot to the Right, but he will not roll over for Trump, nor will other Democratic governors.
Other democracies devolved into Dictatorship because the dictator effectively captured all the levera of government. Here, that is extremely hard. Even after capturing Congress and (mostly) the Supreme Court, he still doesnt have it all.
That is a lot harder to do, within the bounds of the law at least.
Ironically, though, California is one of a small handful of states that allow for recall elections of all elected office holders, up to and including the Governor. Recall that Arnold Schwarzenegger became Governer there due to a recall election. So if his goal is to start ejecting Governors he doesn’t like, California is a good place to start.
But Newsom has already survived one recall attempt, and since he seems to be the Next One Up for Democrats to nominate in 2028, Trump may not be eager to run a recall campaign that might lose, because Newsom will remind everyone that he “beat Trump” on the campaign trail. (And there is no guarantee that Musk won’t start tossing money at Newsom, who is enough of a schemer to accept it.)
Anything after this line is a moot point. They’re not operating within the bounds of the law.
This might be one area where our layered system of government is an advantage, though, because State governments have real power that is separate from the Federal Government. The Founders valued this, too: the 10th Amendment in the Bill of Rights explicitly says that any power not explicitly delegated to the Federal government belongs to the States (and to the people).
So even this President, who aims to rule as a dictator, can’t exercise every power unless the States roll over and let him. And say what you will about Newsom and his pivot to the Right, but he will not roll over for Trump, nor will other Democratic governors.
Other democracies devolved into Dictatorship because the dictator effectively captured all the levera of government. Here, that is extremely hard. Even after capturing Congress and (mostly) the Supreme Court, he still doesnt have it all.