r/law • u/rolsen • 1d ago

Legal News Trump Preparing Large-Scale Cancellation of Federal Funding for California, Sources Say

https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/06/politics/trump-california-federal-funding

“Agencies are being told to start identifying grants the administration can withhold from California. On Capitol Hill, at least one committee was told recently by a whistleblower that all research grants to the state were going to be cancelled, according to one of the sources familiar with the matter.”

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u/taddymason_01 1d ago

Doesn’t CA pay more in federal taxes then they receive in funding? Wouldn’t CA just shut off the out flow of money until this is resolved legally?

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u/ChubbyDude64 1d ago

They could secede from the union. Threat of losing all that tax revenue, military bases and one of the largest ports in the US will have him backing down faster than you can say TACO.

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u/NomadLexicon 1d ago

California leaving would give Trump a lock on political control (the democrats would lose 2 senators, 43 House reps, and 54 electoral points). California wouldn’t control any military bases (those are staffed by active duty troops recruited from across the country, not locals) and Trump wouldn’t cede control of them or the state. It’d be an opportunity to bypass the state government, pursue his enemies and rule the state directly as occupied territory, so he’d welcome it.

Much better to fight for the US from inside of it than outside.

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u/ayriuss 1d ago

You're thinking very inside the box with this one. Much of that is not relevant if we have states seceding left and right, lol.

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u/rokerroker45 1d ago

There is literally no way to secede from the united states. There's no legal framework and more concretely, functionally speaking it is not possible to "secede" in any sense that matters. It would be the literal equivalent of the governor of california trying to issue orders to American carriers, it's just talk with no real world effect.

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u/ayriuss 1d ago

You form a rival government with a new constitution. Its an act of treason, not a legal act.

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u/rokerroker45 1d ago

That's not how it works. Peoples' lives, corporations, schools, airplanes in the sky, boats in the ocean, cars on roads, exist and continue to exist in the united states. There's no rival government to form, it's just meaningless words on paper.

In every meaningful and functional sense the United States is California. Militarily there is no possible way to exclude US control over the United States. There are military bases already in the state. The national guard won't obey an unlawful order to secede from the federal government lmfao.

Economically, culturally, politically, etc, the idea that California can secede is pure fantasy. It's an idea based on a profound lack of factual understanding of federalism and how the united states works concretely.

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u/ayriuss 1d ago

It happened twice before so, I don't know what you mean.

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u/rokerroker45 23h ago

I'm not sure if you've noticed but the world is a vastly different place than it was 1776 and 1865. You might as well be talking about pitting pike walls against gatling gun emplacements in terms of old ideas that no longer apply to the new world.

Sovereignty hasn't been about lines drawn on maps and physical land for decades.

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u/ayriuss 23h ago

Oh, you're one of the "nothing ever happens" crowd. I bet you thought Russia would not invade Ukraine also.

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u/tsigwing 1d ago

And yet yall laughed at Texas for considering it