‘i’m Wary About This President’: California Ag Sounds Warning About Midterm Security

California’s top law enforcement official warned Thursday that President Donald Trump could wield federal power to manipulate the 2026 midterm elections, describing a “disturbing pattern” of efforts to sow distrust about ballot security and interfere with states’ voting procedures.

“I'm wary about this president, and he's earned it. He's earned the distrust on this issue. He has tried to interfere with elections in the past,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in an interview with POLITICO, referencing Trump’s bid to subvert the 2020 election.

The distrust between California and the Trump administration has grown so severe that Bonta said the state dispatched monitors to keep tabs on Justice Department election observerswho descended on California ahead of Tuesday’s crucial vote on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s redistricting measure, known as Proposition 50. The state’s observation of the DOJ monitors was a first in California history, he said.

“We are in unprecedented territory with this administration,” Bonta said. “The Trump administration hates California. Trump hates California. Trump is targeting California.”

Bonta, a Democrat, cited Trump’s recent demands to use the Justice Department as a tool of political vengeance, his repeated, unfounded claims that mail-in ballots are rife with fraud, his executive order aimed at pressuring states to adopt his preferred voting procedures, as well as efforts to obtain states’ voter lists that Bonta said could be used in a large-scale suppression effort.

“That is a disturbing pattern of willingness to interfere and attempt to interfere with the integrity of our elections,” Bonta said.

The attorney general also said his office has planned for extreme scenarios — from Trump deploying the National Guard near polling places in California cities to the potential to misuse the Postal Service to “undermine vote-by-mail ballots.”

“We've thought about different types of intimidation and voter suppression, and, you know, [voter] roll purging,” he said. “We're going to do everything in our power to protect elections in California, which are already safe, secure, accurate, reliable and make sure they're not improperly interfered with by the federal government.”

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Justice Department pointed toa statement the week before the election emphasizing that its monitors were “trained professionals” whose work was protected by federal law.

Bonta said he was buoyed by the recent victory of Attorney General-elect Jay Jones in Virginia, who he anticipated would join a coalition of Democratic attorneys general to mount legal resistance to Trump administration policies.

“Now you know, and I know, that Jay Jones has flaws,” Bonta said, referring to violent rhetoric in text messages Jones sent to an ally several years ago, which were revealed in the final weeks of the election.

“It is not acceptable, what he said. Political violence has no place in our discourse and in our democracy. He's apologized for it, he's taken responsibility for it. … He's part of the Democratic attorneys general now, and I think he is ready, willing, able, to join the fight and add a lot of value to it.”