When he was sworn into office last year, President Donald Trump wasted no time taking aim at California.
He quickly declared that the Democrat-run state was “out of control”, and threatened to cut off federal funding if the state government did not co-operate with his harder-line immigration policy.
Since then, the administration has pitched policies that thrust it further into opposition to the country’s most populous state — including enforcing the federal ban on cannabis, which is legal in California, and opening up the state’s coastal waters to offshore drilling — while enacting a tax plan that penalises residents in high-tax states.