California leaders might be on pace to match the number of times the state sued the first Trump administration. But it sure doesn’t feel like it out here.

Instead, the state that once was a clear foil to President Donald Trump has mounted a muted defense and cautious offense. 

Eight years is a long time, and politicians here and in the congressional delegation say there are plenty of reasons California can’t be the loud opposition this time around. Among them: tight state and local budgets instead of surpluses, a need for federal support to rebuild after the January fires and the pure and simple reading of the room given Trump won the popular vote.

At this point in 2017, less than 100 days into Trump’s first term, protesters took to the streets in the nation’s most populous state on a daily basis. Activists and lawyers swarmed LAX to make it the central roadblock for ending his Muslim ban. The Los Angeles Times was selling “We will not shut up” T-shirts after being kicked out of a White House press briefing. 

“You don’t want to mess with California, because you’re going to mess with the economy, and that could blow up in your face in a gigantic recession and roll the Republicans right out of this town,” then-Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” in late March 2017. “We’re going to fight, and we’re going to fight very hard.”

The Democratic governor in speeches that year vowed to defend “every man, woman and child who’s come here for a better life and contributed to the well-being of our state.” It was a continuation of the loud opposition he and others in Sacramento were blasting daily.

Fast forward. Gov. Gavin Newsom this February signed a measure earmarking $25 million for lawsuits and $25 million for legal defense for immigrants — but the Democrat did it in private, and with no message about fighting back. A 118-word signing statement noted the funds are intended for “safeguarding the civil rights of California’s most vulnerable residents,” but also noted they could not aid anyone convicted of serious or violent felonies. 

Newsom isn’t spending his time these days talking about fighting. The governor has been talking with people on the right for a new podcast he promises will be more about “debating without demeaning.”

The series has irked people on the left who see it as platforming the far-right, but comments across social media and on Spotify have been largely complimentary of the governor for listening to his party’s opponents, including Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon. He’s also bringing on liberals, including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democrats’ 2024 vice presidential nominee. He started that conversation with the fact that Democrats are in a bad place politically. “We’re in the tank,” Newsom said.

While the officials are more measured this time around, Californians are in the same place when it comes to how they feel about Trump. A February Public Policy Institute of California survey found just 30 percent of Californians and just one-third of voters approve of his job performance. That’s about the same as this time in 2017, even though Trump earned 38 percent of the vote here in November, up from 31.5 percent eight years before.

Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, a California Democrat who represents central Los Angeles, said when she travels in the state people tell her they are “over” Trump. 

She’s done her share of town halls and may head to swingy Republican districts with an eye on the 2026 midterms. She likes to focus on the impacts of Trump’s actions — how many teachers in her district could be fired and painful Medicaid cuts — along with threats she calls “existential” and a constitutional crisis she details in her new “Is This Shit Legal?” social media series.

“Everywhere we go, people are irritated, agitated, motivated,” she said in a recent interview. 

Kamlager-Dove might be right, if Saturday’s “hands off” protests in California are any indicator. Thousands turned out at cities across the state, many telling local reporters it was the first time they protested this year. 

Others in the Democratic delegation are getting in on the action. 

Rep. Raul Ruiz made an appearance at the protest in front of Palm Springs City Hall to decry the impact he said tariffs will have on the economy, The Desert Sun reported.

“This is a war against our democracy to create the autocracy and the dictatorship Trump wants to make for America,” Ruiz said, to a crowd holding signs reading “Send Musk to Mars” and other messages we can’t print. The prevailing message, from Redding to San Diego, was “fight.”

That’s just what former Rep. Xavier Becerra did as attorney general here before becoming Health and Human Services secretary under President Joe Biden. He wears the 123 California v. Trump lawsuits the state filed against Trump in his first term as a badge of honor, and used the figure last week when announcing his bid to become governor. There were challenges to immigration policy and a defense of the state’s clean air and water policies. Most prominent was protecting the Affordable Care Act in a battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court.  

In a conversation last week, Becerra told me his two-thirds success rate on the legal front was in large part thanks to strategy and preparation. 

“We were ready for weak spots they would attack,” he said, and, “we were prepared to defend everything we’ve done.”

He’s got his campaign lines down, saying that because he helped to write the ACA and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program he was able to advocate for them from a legal standpoint. 

Without poking any of his rivals in the top-two primary, including former Democratic Rep. Katie Porter, Becerra framed himself as being best positioned to be “prepared to break glass” instead of giving Californians business as usual. “What California needs is someone who knows how to execute, who’s been a CEO and can deliver real results,” he said. “It’s great to talk about what you would do; it’s even better when you can be talking about what you did do.”

On the legal front now, California Attorney General Rob Bonta is handling a dozen lawsuits opposing the Trump administration — four in the last week alone.

The Los Angeles Times characterized the legal action so far as “a rapid-fire slate” on everything from challenging Trump’s order to end birthright citizenship and firing of federal workers across government to attempting to block the slashing of research funds for universities. If the pace keeps up, Bonta could match Becerra’s record.

I asked Kamlager-Dove to compare what she’s seeing from former colleagues in Sacramento where she served in the legislature during part of Trump’s first term. Back then, “We felt like we were somewhat inoculated,” she said. 

Everyone worked together to position California as the anti-Trump state, which was easy to do at that time because the state had a large budget surplus. “It was very motivating,” she said.