by: Marc Sternfield

Posted: Dec 20, 2024 / 11:24 AM PST

Updated: Dec 20, 2024 / 01:24 PM PST

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) – With California voting overwhelmingly for a third time against electing Donald Trump as president, a global finance author and columnist says Californians could potentially see a ballot measure to secede from the United States.

“[Trump] mustered less than 40% of the vote in California,” writes Jeffrey Goldfarb of Reuters BreakingViews. “Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor, already has called on the state legislature to ‘safeguard California values and fundamental rights’ from the president-elect’s second term in office. Such resistance looks destined to escalate into a secession movement in 2025.”

Goldfarb argues that California, with the world’s fifth largest economy, would be viable as its own nation. And leaving the U.S. could make fiscal sense, he argues, since the Golden State contributed $72 billion more to the federal government than it received in 2022.

The idea of secession isn’t new and has gained traction worldwide, with examples like South Sudan and Brexit. In Canada, Quebec held two referendums on independence in 1980 and 1995, with the latter narrowly failing 50.88% to 49.42%.

In the U.S., Texas Republicans have pushed for a secession vote.

In 2017, just one year into Trump’s first presidency, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found that nearly a third of Californians supported a peaceful withdrawal from the U.S.

“And that was before Covid-19, when divergent approaches to managing the pandemic intensified acrimony between Newsom and Trump,” Goldfarb writes.

It wouldn’t take much, he says, to put secession on the ballot. Supporters only need to gather 900,000 valid signatures out of 22.6 million registered voters.

But would California benefit from breaking away?

Simply, no, says KTLA consumer reporter David Lazarus.

“It’s the political equivalent of saying California is going to take its ball and go home,” Lazarus argues. “And even if secession was a serious idea (which it’s not), the state would quickly discover a wide range of financial headaches as it tries to get by without federal programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and veterans assistance.”

Instead of trying to become its own nation, Lazarus argues that California should continue to exert its influence on national policies and social issues and help shape the future of the United States rather than leave it.

“A more realistic approach would be for California to flex its muscle as the world’s fifth-largest economy to influence national policy on immigration, environmental, and regulatory matters. The simple fact is that when California leads, other states often follow,” says Lazarus.