California’s Top Prosecutor Seeks to Weaponize Trump ‘Mistakes’

President Donald Trump and his administration keep making the same legal mistakes, California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) said—"I should say, maybe it’s not a mistake. Maybe it’s deliberate.”

In an exclusive conversation with Bloomberg Law, the Golden State’s most powerful prosecutor said his team has felt prepared for Trump’s actions and orders in the early days of his presidency, even the ones he didn’t see coming.

“All of the concepts that we had developed a fluency with since Trump 1.0 were easily applicable here: separation of powers, the Administrative Procedure Act,” Bonta said.

His staff prepared a “conceptual box” of strategies to address moves discussed by Trump and the Project 2025 policy blueprint ahead of inauguration, like the birthright citizenship ban, Bonta said. But the tools have also proven useful for developments that “weren’t on his bingo card,” including the Office of Management and Budget memo calling for a widespread funding freeze.

“They keep violating the law in the same or similar ways, so that conceptual stash is being deployed exactly how we thought,” he said.

‘Positive Vibes’

Bonta and a coalition of Democratic attorneys general have emerged since January as among Trump’s most visible and effective antagonists. He describes the group’s working relationship as “positive vibes.”

It’s not hard to see why: they keep winning.

The group of 23 Democratic attorneys general has secured restrictions on the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency’s access to treasury data; pauses on Trump’s birthright citizenship ban; and orders to keep trillions of dollars in federal funds flowing, among other early victories. The standout setback came from a judge who declined to immediately block Musk from accessing US agencies.

On Thursday, Bonta and the coalition struck again, suing Trump over the mass firings of Department of Education employees.

“We’ve chosen to team up and share resources and share talent, share institutional knowledge, strategic thinking, for the overall benefit of the good,” Bonta said. “And there’s a power and a beauty in that, that people appreciate. Some folks have said, ‘I’ve never been more proud to serve in this role.’”

The states have assumed an aggressive posture in responding to Trump actions. They take the administration or agency to court almost immediately and look to secure an emergency block within days.

“People think litigation takes a long time,” Bonta said. “The entire, the full litigation will take some time, but a judge has already determined we’re likely to succeed on the merits, and we’re probably going to win.”

He added: “We never go to court for ideological difference or political grievance. It’s only about breaking the law.”

When the coalition files a lawsuit, the venue is determined by which attorney general raises their hand first, Bonta said. Cases are “sprinkled” around the country and he expects the distribution across jurisdictions to grow, Bonta said.

“We didn’t necessarily think we were going to file in the District of Rhode Island, but we have a very important case there,” he said, referring to the suit that prompted a judge’s order for the administration to immediately unfreeze $3 trillion in federal funds.

Many of the states’ cases have been filed, including the most recent one Thursday, in the jurisdiction of the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit—which has many judges appointed by Democrats.

Focus on Californians

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a funding package in February that sent $25 million to Bonta’s office for fights with the Trump administration.

Bonta said he sees that package as a “down payment” that will be reassessed. California sued the first Trump administration more than 100 times during that term.

The ability to push back is important because the actions have huge implications for Californians.

“These aren’t just a matter of principle and who wins and who loses. These are people who are losing—millions of dollars,” Bonta said, adding, “A whole social service safety net for children, for seniors, for the poor, for the sick.”

Looking ahead, Bonta said he expects Trump to challenge California on anything from the state’s diversity, equity and inclusion programming to its focus on criminal, rather than civil immigration enforcement.

But the strategy isn’t without critics.

It’s not the role of a state attorney general to be “organizing a resistance,” said Joe Luppino-Esposito, a legal policy deputy director with Pacific Legal Foundation. “It seems like a lot of resources are going towards just a battle for the battle’s sake.”

Though Bonta and the coalition have secured many early temporary injunctions, UC Law SF Professor Jodi Short cautioned against declaring winners or losers based on court rulings alone.

“At the end of the day, we need to evaluate this success based on whether, for instance, laboratories are able to remain up and running and doing their incredibly important work,” Short said.

Constitutional Crisis?

Though Bonta and the other state AGs get along well, they have points of disagreement.

After a federal judge found in February that the Trump administration had defied a court order, a handful of the 23 AGs warned reporters at a Hollywood hotel that the country was entering a Constitutional crisis.

Bonta’s comments were more reserved. The political system is “being stress-tested, but it is durable,” he said.

He still feels that way a month later—perhaps even more so.

“The more I’ve dug in, the more I’ve seen that when the court issues orders, the federal government is, in good faith, complying with them,” Bonta said.

“And I don’t believe that because I want to. I’m very open to the possibility that they won’t do that someday, or even now, but the facts tell me that by and large, they’re not blatantly defying orders, and that’s good. That’s how our system is supposed to work.”