‘Caleavefornia’: Radical push to make California a brand new country underway

A US state is pushing to break away and become a free and independent nation – and the plan has just been given a major green light.

President Donald Trump wants to annex Panama, Greenland and Canada.

But will he let California go?

“Should California leave the United States and become a free and independent country?”

Call it Calexit, Califrexit or Caleavefornia.

It’s a proposal for the state to secede from the United States.

Now the idea has been given the green light to be circulated statewide as a petition.

And if it collects enough signatures, it could end up attached to the November 2028 US Presidential election ballot.

Whatever the outcome, the proposal is destined to become yet another battlefield between California’s largely Democrat state government and President Donald Trump’s MAGA federal executive.

And that may settle the idea.

“Republicans now hate us in California more than ever,” activist Marcus Ruiz Evans told the San Francisco Standard.

“The hate was palpable in 2016. But now it’s palpable and focused …”

It’s not the first time the idea of secession has been raised.

California has even been an independent nation – for 25 days during the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt.

But are its 175 years as part of the United States finally drawing to an end?

A recent Los Angeles Times poll found 48 per cent of Republicans already believe California is “not really American”. And President Trump’s threat to attach conditions for the delivery of Federal emergency aid during the devastating Los Angeles wildfires has done little to strengthen the state of the union.

“They’re telling us they don’t see us as Americans,” Evans said.

“That’s why it’s okay to talk about cutting us off from funds when people are dead and homeless.”

Now the idea has been given the green light to be circulated statewide as a petition.

California the brave

Advocates argue California has all the ingredients to be a prosperous, independent nation.

It is the most populous state in the US.

In its own right, it is the world’s fifth-largest economy.

And much of the rest of the nation doesn’t care about what happens on the other side of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

“I think a proposal like this becomes more mainstream and takes on more legs the more that Californians feel disenfranchised or otherwise at odds with what is going on at the federal level,” law professor Chris Micheli told ABC10.

The 47th President of the United States likes to pick fights with California’s governors.

Mr Trump has taken to calling Governor Gavin Newsom “Newscum” and California a “failed state”.

President Donald Trump wants to annex Panama, Greenland and Canada. But will he let California go? Picture: Roberto Schmidt/AFP

For his part, Mr Newsom has summoned the California Legislature to find ways to counteract many of Mr Trump’s controversial executive orders.

Now, Mr Trump blames the governor for California’s drought-stricken water infrastructure, falsely claiming that firefighters had no water to fight the devastating LA fires.

“I don’t think we should give California anything until they let water flow down from the north to the south,” Mr Trump added.

Sentiments such as these have revived the secession debate.

A survey in February last year found only 29 per cent of Californians supported the idea of dumping the White House and Capitol Hill.

But a new poll released by the San Diego County-based Independent California Institute claims support has now surged to 60 per cent.

“Calexit means that our laws are determined by the people of California and not unelected bureaucrats in Washington that we didn’t elect,” Evans’ website states.

“It means that we get a government that begins and ends at the borders of California. It means an end to the money siphoned from the pockets of California taxpayers. Most importantly, it means that for the first time in our lives, we control our own destiny.”

A map of California. Picture: Google Maps

Oh, Canada!

President Trump has suggested Canada would be better off as a state. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was willing to consider a swap – for California or Vermont.

So, who would benefit most if Canada was swapped for California?

They have similar-sized populations. But Canada covers some 9.9 million square kilometres, as compared to California’s 434,000.

But, at $US2.3 trillion, Canada has the world’s ninth-largest GDP. California has a GDP of $US3.9 trillion – the world’s fifth largest.

Advocates argue that comparing Canada’s $US534 billion national budget and California’s $US322 billion state budget shows independence is economically viable. Especially as the US federal government takes an additional $US560 in taxes out of the state annually.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he jokingly suggested a trade for Vermont or California as a retort to President-elect Donald Trump’s expression of interest in annexing Canada late last year.

Mr Trudeau said Mr Trump didn’t like the idea.

“It actually sort of came up at one point, and then we started musing back and forth about this,” Mr Trudeau told US media.

“And when I started to suggest, ‘Well, maybe there could be a trade for Vermont or California for certain parts’, he immediately decided that it was not that funny anymore, and we moved on to a different conversation.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was willing to consider a swap – for California or Vermont. Picture: Sergei Gapon/AFP

So California’s fate is in its own hands.

Is it willing to take the plunge?

A similar petition a decade ago garnered around 100,000 supporters. Due to be collected in July, the new petition must attract 550,000 (five per cent of registered voters) to move forward.

If presented on the 2028 ballot, it needs a 55 per cent majority of a minimum 50 per cent voter turnout to pass.

Even then, the result would not be legally binding.

Secession isn’t as simple as ripping up California’s copy of the US Constitution.

Its own state constitution insists California “is an inseparable part of the United States of America”.

And the US Constitution allows its signatories no opportunity for second thoughts.

That means any move by California to leave can only occur if the US Constitution is amended. And this requires the approval of at least two-thirds of the 50 participant states.

Jamie Seidel is a freelance writer | @jamieseidel.bsky.social