Gov. Jerry Brown had a message for President Donald Trump during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” recently: “You don’t want to mess with California.”
Democratic Gov. Brown made this remark in response to the president’s recent threats to use federal funding as a “weapon” against California if the state was to become a sanctuary state – a threat that comes amid Trump’s immigration efforts, according to NBC News.
“We do have something called the ninth and the 10th amendment,” Brown said.
“The federal government just can’t arbitrarily for political reasons punish the State of California, that’s number one,” he added. “Number two, California is America. We’re 12 percent. We’re a key part – the export capital going into the Pacific.
“We’re the innovation capital, high tech, agriculture, 40- to 50-billion-dollar industry. 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,” Brown said.
According to the Los Angeles Times, many Democratic leaders have been fighting a lot of Trump’s proposals since he took office in January.
Brown said during the NBC interview that he plans to fight back as well, but his approach will remain “strategic.”
“We’re going to fight very hard. But we’re not going to bring stupid lawsuits or be running to the courthouse every day,” Brown said.
“We’re going to be careful. We’ll be strategic,” he added.
The president has criticized California over immigration in the past, according to the Times of San Diego.
He’s said California is “out of control,” but Brown rebutted that statement as well, adding that the immigration in the state has been a huge contribution.
“Last year we created 400,000 jobs or more. So the taxation, the regulation, the immigration – the 2 million undocumented people – all that is contributing to the most prosperous economic engine in the world,” Brown said.
Brown even offered his thoughts about Trump’s plan to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
“The wall to me is ominous. It reminds me too much of the Berlin wall,” he said.
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