California relishes role as liberal trendsetter, Trump foe

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Democrats ruling California this year took on homegrown tech giants Uber and Lyft, convinced some of the world’s largest automakers to buck the president on fuel emissions and passed a law to change college sports.

California has long used its status as the nation’s most populous state and the world’s fifth-largest economy to pass trend-setting policies.

But that role has crystallized in the Trump era, with California Democrats positioning the state as the nation’s defense system against rollbacks of environmental and health care laws and the federal crackdown on illegal immigration.

Meanwhile, Trump highlights the state’s problems to argue his policies are more in line with average Americans. He’s pointed in particular to homelessness in the state’s signature cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles.