Mullin hosts ‘emergency’ town hall with state AG

“Trump has been engaging in extreme executive overreach … that’s putting it mildly, in many ways, disregarding our foundational, small-d democratic systems,” Mullin said. 

Litigation is ongoing around Trump’s prior domestic deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles, with one judge ruling that the deployment was unlawful. While the National Guard has yet to be deployed on that scale in the Bay Area, the threat is worrying to many residents. 

Troop deployment power was returned back to the federal government as the case continues through the system, but Bonta said he believes courts are growing increasingly skeptical around the president’s use of the military on domestic soil. 

“Trump is not a king. He’s not above the law. He is acting as if the National Guard is his royal guard, and that this is his personal traveling army that he can deploy where he wants, when he wants,” he said. “That is absolutely not true.” 

California has also had legal wins regarding the Trump administration attempts to access sensitive data from the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, Medicaid and voter databases, allegedly in an attempt to create a master database to share across all levels of federal government, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

That’s a violation of the rights of Californians, Bonta said. 

“We’ve met the Trump administration in court when they’ve made these unreasonable requests, and we’ve been able to block them multiple times from being able to access this data,” he said. 

One town hall attendee, who identified herself as Madeline, asked what recourse was available if and when the federal administration ignored court orders that sided with California. 

In actuality, the administration has complied with 80% of court orders in cases where California has won lawsuits, Bonta said; however, he delineated civil and criminal contempt steps that a court can take if an order is ignored. 

“There’s a ratcheting up of progressive steps to take if the Trump administration is not following court orders, and until someone is in jail and being held in contempt for not following a court order,” he said. 

Bonta said he resonated with another query from one attendee who asked what recourse Californians had as a donor state paying more to the federal government than it receives, particularly in cases when the administration is actively withholding funds. 

One theoretical response would be for Californians not to pay federal taxes as an act of civil disobedience, which would be illegal under the law, he emphasized. 

“It would take many people to have the discipline to all do it at once. I think it’s very difficult to do, and maybe others have thought about this and have a better answer,” Bonta said. “I do want to just emphasize my agreement with your feelings on this. It’s not fair. It’s not right.” 

Mullin also fielded questions about the ongoing government shutdown — the longest in the nation’s history — and its range of impacts; including a freeze on SNAP benefits that was recently vetoed by a federal judge and upcoming cuts to airline flights as air traffic controllers continue to go unpaid. 

He told attendees he’s hopeful that the shutdown will come to a close with Democratic demands for health care funding in place, as negotiations have slowly begun again in the Senate. 

“Certainly I am hopeful that in the short order here we will have a bipartisan compromise that extends the tax credits on the Affordable Care Act,” he said. “We also are going to continue to push, especially when the Democrats get the gavels in 2026, to restore the cuts to Medicaid that the House Republican majority put in place.” 

It’s important for Californians to continue to engage with the government and make their voices heard against the Trump administration, Bonta told attendees. 

“I just want to remind you that you ought not feel hopeless, because you’re not helpless,” he said. “You have the most important power that there is in democracy — people power.”