Launching his first salvo less than 36 hours after former President Trump was again elected to the White House, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday convened a special session of the state Legislature to increase legal funding to defend civil rights, climate change, access to abortion, disaster funding and other California policies from a conservative federal agenda before the inauguration in January.

Newsom’s preemptive strike signals the return of the hostile relationship between Democratic-controlled California and the Trump administration that was a hallmark of the Republican’s first term.

“The freedoms we hold dear in California are under attack — and we won’t sit idle,” Newsom said in a statement. “California has faced this challenge before, and we know how to respond. We are prepared to fight in the courts, and we will do everything necessary to ensure Californians have the support and resources they need to thrive.”

The new special session provides an early look at Newsom’s plan to wage an aggressive and highly visible campaign to shield California from the Trump White House while leading Democrats in the culture wars against the Republican Party.

In an interview in Orange County on Sunday, the Democratic governor warned that California will be dealing with a different Trump than the politician who won the presidency in 2016.

“This is the revenge and retribution 2.0 version,” Newsom said.

In his acceptance speech early Wednesday, Trump declared that America had given him “an unprecedented and powerful mandate.”

Newsom’s special session proclamation says his administration anticipates that the incoming president could seek to limit access to abortion medication, pursue a national abortion ban, dismantle clean air and water environmental protections, repeal the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and withhold federal disaster response funding, among other promises he made during the campaign.

As part of its effort to prepare for a potential Trump presidency, the Newsom administration completed an analysis of Project 2025, which has been described as a playbook for a new GOP administration that includes plans for replacing thousands of career federal workers with Trump supporters who will carry out a far-right agenda.

Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and Newsom’s office also reviewed more than 100 lawsuits California filed against the federal government during Trump’s first administration to pinpoint potential vulnerabilities for the state and map out the president-elect’s agenda.

Bonta called a news conference for Thursday morning to “discuss implications for California and preparations for a second Trump Administration” — another sign that the state’s top Democrats are preparing for legal battle.

The governor is asking lawmakers to provide additional funding to the California Department of Justice and other agencies in his administration to immediately file lawsuits and defend against litigation from and against the Trump administration.

The governor’s aides said increases to the state’s legal defense would be paid for with income tax revenues that have exceeded projections in the current fiscal year, but the amount of funding will be determined in negotiations at the state Capitol.

Newsom has called a special session two other times to achieve a policy objective, in his political battle with the oil industry. This also marks the second special session since lawmakers adjourned for the year at the end of August.

The new proclamation set the special session to begin on Dec. 2, the day newly elected lawmakers are scheduled to gather in the Senate and Assembly chambers to be sworn in. Legislators typically leave Sacramento after the ceremony to spend the holidays in their districts before returning for the regular session at the start of the year. The schedule for special session hearings has not yet been determined, but could take place in early January at the same time as the regular session.

Laws passed in a special session and signed by the governor typically take affect 90 days after the session adjourns. Urgency bills, which require support from two-thirds of lawmakers, become law immediately with the governor’s signature. Bills that appropriate funding also take effect with his approval.

Trump’s inauguration is Jan. 20.

After President-elect Trump’s victory, Iran must now prepare to contend with the man it’s been trying to assassinate for years.

Tehran had reportedly been interfering in the U.S. election on behalf of Vice President Kamala Harris. But with former Trump’s win, the regime will have to prepare for a U.S. leader who is, at the very least, a wild card. 

On Wednesday, the Telegram channel of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IGRC), its military force, posted a video threatening to kill Trump. It ended with footage of a bloodied Trump and the words “We will finish the job.”

Iran has long vowed revenge for Trump approving the 2019 killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani. 

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“The Islamic Republic has to be terrified that the presidential candidate that they tried to kill has just won the election,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, an Iran expert at the hawkish Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) think tank, told Fox News Digital. 

“The regime knows it can ill afford more exogenous economic shocks. Even the return of maximum pressure alone to the Islamic Republic is going to cause major, major economic problems.”

Iran’s currency tanked to an all-time low Wednesday after Trump clinched victory, signaling its challenges are far from over in the Middle East as war rages on through proxies in both Gaza and Lebanon. 

After Tuesday’s victory, Iran must now prepare to contend with the man it has been trying to assassinate for years. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The rial traded at 703,000 rials to the dollar, traders in Tehran said, breaking a record before recovering slightly later in the day to 696,150 to $1.

In 2015, at the time of Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers, the rial was at 32,000 to $1. On July 30, the day Iran’s reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian was sworn in and started his term, the rate was 584,000 to $1.

And despite U.S. sanctions that critics claim have not been enforced, Iran has been able to export near-record amounts of oil, around 1.7 million barrels per day.  

At the same time, Iran could ramp up production to build a nuclear weapon in a matter of weeks by many estimates. 

“Tehran knows maximum pressure is set to return,” said Taleblu. “During this lame duck period, the nuclear saber rattling threat has to be taken seriously, particularly when its conventional deterrence has been so badly beaten.”

After the Trump administration pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, it imposed harsh sanctions on the regime to stop its funding of proxies abroad, banning U.S. citizens from trading with Iran or handling Iranian money. 

It also punished entities in other countries that did business with Iran by cutting them off from the dollar. 

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has led the yearslong campaign to assassinate Trump. (Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Image)

President Biden often waived enforcement of such sanctions, keen to bring Tehran back to the negotiating table to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons and fearful of driving up global oil prices. 

Iran gained access to more than $10 billion through a State Department sanctions waiver that allowed Iraq to continue buying energy from Iran, which the Biden administration argues is necessary to keep lights on in Baghdad. 

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby has insisted none of the funds go to the IRGC or Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei but are “for humanitarian goods.”

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Iran must also now factor an imminent Trump presidency into how it escalates war with Israel. Israel responded to Tehran’s strikes on Tel Aviv last month with attacks on Iranian military sites, and now Khamenei has vowed harsh countermeasures. 

“Trump’s victory will give Iran pause as it considers striking back at Israel in their tit for tat,” said Sean McFate, adjunct professor at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. 

“During Trump’s previous administration, he scuttled the Iran Nuclear Deal (JCPOA), strongly embraced Israel and sought to normalize Jewish-Arab relations in the region. I doubt he will support the Palestinians, and he will likely end the Biden-Harris dual policy of support to both sides in the Gaza conflict. None of this is good for Iran.”

Trump ordered a drone strike on Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, center, in 2019. (Press Office of Iranian Supreme Leader/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

But others predicted Trump may actually be less supportive of Israel, Iran’s No. 1 foe in the region, than the Biden administration due to his anti-interventionist tendencies. 

“There’s the unpredictability factor with Trump,” said Chuck Freilich, former deputy national security adviser in Israel. “They don’t know. They’ll be cautious from that point of view with him and more so than they would have been with Biden.”

“Will they be willing to do what has to be done to prevent Iran from crossing, and that may include military action? The Republican Party has become isolationist.

“Biden sent aircraft carrier groups [near Israel] on four occasions in the last year. That’s an unprecedented deployment of American force, both in support of Israel and to deter Iran. Is [Trump] willing to do that?” he added. “I think he will be maybe even less inclined to use military force than Biden would have been.”

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Officially, Iran brushed off the suggestion a Trump presidency could inflict damage on the regime. 

“The U.S. elections are not really our business. Our policies are steady and don’t change based on individuals. We made the necessary predictions before, and there will not be change in people’s livelihoods,” government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

WASHINGTON —  Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday acknowledged her defeat to President-elect Donald Trump in a speech marked by emotion as well as a resolve to never give up the fight for a more just union.

“My heart is full today, full of gratitude for the trust you have placed in me, full of love for our country, and full of resolve,” Harris told supporters at Howard University, her alma mater.

Harris’ 12-minute speech, behind bulletproof glass in front of the brick, flag-lined Frederick Douglas Memorial Hall, took place less than 24 hours on the site where her supporters had gathered to celebrate what they had hoped would be the election of the first female president.

On Tuesday night, revelers were dancing to 1990s hip-hop but grew somber as states began falling for Trump. On Wednesday, supporters and staffers embraced, wiped away tears and questioned whether this nation would ever elect a woman, notably a Black woman, president.

“The outcome of this election is not what we wanted, not what we fought for, not what we voted for,” Harris told the crowd. “But … hear me when I say, the light of America’s promise will always burn bright, as long as we never give up and as long as we keep fighting.”

Harris, typically stoic from her days as a prosecutor, displayed flashes of disappointment and sadness after telling the crowd that she was proud of the whirlwind campaign they ran over 107 days after President Biden announced he would not seek reelection.

“Now, I know folks are feeling and experiencing a range of emotions right now. I get it,” she said, with a wry chuckle. “But we must accept the results of this election.”

The crowd booed when she said that she had spoken with Trump earlier in the day to congratulate him. But as she continued speaking, they soon returned to cheering as she described the peaceful transition of power, which she pledged to assist him with, as a bedrock of democracy.

“A fundamental principle of American democracy is that when we lose an election, we accept the results,” Harris said, her voice quivering. “That principle, as much as any other, distinguishes democracy from monarchy or tyranny, and anyone who seeks the public trust must honor it. At the same time, in our nation, we owe loyalty not to a president or a party, but to the Constitution of the United States.”

She did not mention that, before the election, Trump and other leading Republicans had hedged on whether they would accept the results, saying they would have to see if the balloting was conducted fairly and properly.

However, these statements were clearly an allusion to the former president’s refusal to accept the 2020 election outcome and the ensuing insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress worked to certify the electoral college vote.

Harris said that while she accepted the election results, she refused to concede the fight for freedom, opportunity and fairness that girded her campaign.

“That is a fight I will never give up,” she said.

She implored young people not to give up on fighting for their ideals because of her loss.

“Do not despair. This is not a time to throw up our hands,” Harris said. “This is a time to roll up our sleeves. This is a time to organize, to mobilize and to stay engaged for the sake of freedom and justice and the future that we all know we can build together.”

She concluded with one of her favorite adages — that the stars can only be seen when the night sky is dark. “I know many people feel like we are entering a dark time,” she said. “For the benefit of us all, I hope that is not the case. But here’s the thing, America. If it is, let us fill the sky with the light of a brilliant, brilliant billion … stars, the light, the light of optimism, of faith, of truth and service.”

After Harris concluded speaking and walked back into Memorial Hall, the music stopped playing as crews began dismantling the stage.

Several current members of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the historically Black sorority Harris joined at Howard, gathered in a circle. The young women, wearing dresses in various shades of pink, one of the sorority’s colors, softly sang their national hymn.

“Through the years as we struggle // With main and with might // To capture a vision fair // There is one thing that spurs us // To victory’s height // With a fellowship sincere and rare // O, Alpha Kappa Alpha // Dear Alpha Kappa Alpha”