Gavin Newsom announced he is seeking up to $25 million in additional funding for legal fights with Donald Trump, despite the state’s massive budget shortfall.

The announcement came on the first day of a special session of the California legislature dedicated to preparing the liberal state for the second term of conservative Trump.

Trump’s return to the White House will likely resurrect the hostile relationship between the pair.

The president-elect has repeatedly called the Democrat ‘Newscum’, railed against crime in California, and ridiculed his electric car mandate.

If approved by the legislature, the California Department of Justice and state agencies would get the extra funding for court battles in areas such as reproductive rights, environmental protection and immigration.

‘The new litigation fund will help safeguard critical funding for disaster relief, health care, and other vital services that millions of Californians depend on daily’, the governor wrote in the proposal.

He added the state plans to ‘defend against unlawful federal actions that could jeopardize not only tangible resources and the state´s economy’ as well as protection of reproductive health care and civil rights.

The fights could also force the federal government to pay needed funding, Newsom said in a statement, citing successful legal skirmishes with the federal government during the first Trump administration.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, also a Democrat, said in a press conference, that his agency would staff up to be able to react quickly to Trump administration action with motions for restraining orders and injunctions.

California spent $42 million to support litigation in Trump´s first term between 2017-2022. The state filed over 120 lawsuits challenging Trump Administration actions.

The state assembly also has introduced bills geared toward protecting access to abortion medication and enforcing the Reproductive Privacy Act, Bonta said.

Newsom’s office expects the special budget legislation to be signed into law before Trump´s inauguration on Jan. 20.

Newsom responded to Trump’s rout in November by saying: ‘The freedoms we hold dear in California are under attack – and we won’t sit idle.

‘Kamala Harris set out to fight to defend our fundamental freedoms and build a country that works for everyone.

‘She stood up for working families, decency, and opportunity. Though this is not the outcome we wanted, our fight for freedom and opportunity endures.’

Newsom maintained that California will seek to work with the incoming president.’

But he added in a statement: ‘Let there be no mistake, we intend to stand with states across our nation to defend our Constitution and uphold the rule of law.

‘Federalism is the cornerstone of our democracy. It’s the United STATES of America.’

Newsom’s office said the governor wants to ‘Trump-proof’ California’s state laws.

His announcement called on the state legislature to give the attorney general’s office more funding to fight federal challenges.

Some may see the move as superfluous, petty and out of touch given Newsom himself has argued the state is in massive trouble budget-wise.

In January, the liberal Democrat proposed slashing climate change, housing and clean energy programs in the state to plug an estimated $38billion deficit.

The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office predicted last December that California’s budget deficit would be $68 billion but Newsom said it was much lower.

He proposed covering the financial shortfall by tapping $13billion from reserves, trimming $8.5billion from programs, deferring some spending to the future and spreading it out over more years.

Newsom’s plan includes $8.5 billion in spending cuts, with about half of those cuts spread across various housing and climate programs. Liberals have long pushed climate change and housing programs as part of their agenda.

California’s move is part of a growing discussion among Democratic state officials across the country seeking to protect policies that face threats under Trump’s leadership.

Other blue states are also moving quickly to prepare game plans and expect a fiercer battle this time around with a Republican-dominated Senate and possibly House in Washington D.C.

In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James, both Democrats, said senior staffers plan to meet regularly to coordinate legal strategies.

‘Our team will do whatever we have to do to identify any possible threats to these rights that we hold dear in the state of New York and protect New Yorkers,” Hochul said at a news conference.