Trump Administration Joins Lawsuit to Block California’s New Redistricting Map

The Trump administration has thrown its weight behind a federal lawsuit aimed at overturning California’s newly approved congressional map, escalating a political fight that now spans both coasts and both parties’ most aggressive gerrymandering efforts.

The move came just days after California voters backed Proposition 50 by a decisive 64 percent. The ballot measure suspends the state’s independent redistricting commission for the next three election cycles and hands map-making power back to the Democratic-controlled legislature. The goal was openly political: counterbalance Republican-engineered maps in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio.

For the Justice Department, the measure represents something more sinister. Attorney General Pam Bondi called California’s overhaul “a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process.” She accused Governor Gavin Newsom of attempting to “silence millions of Californians” and lock in one-party dominance. The DOJ’s complaint claims the map unlawfully favors Hispanic communities “because of their race,” echoing the lawsuit filed by the California GOP and 19 voters the day after the election.

California’s Democrats have not bothered with polite responses.

“These losers lost at the ballot box and soon they will also lose in court,” said Newsom spokesperson Brandon Richards. Newsom himself waved off Trump’s objections as “the ramblings of an old man that knows he’s about to LOSE.”

The clash reflects a wider electoral arms race. After Republicans pushed through maps in Texas that could generate five new GOP seats in 2026, California Democrats designed their own map to potentially secure five extra seats. The political intent on both sides is clear — the legal footing less so. Civil rights groups argue the Texas and Missouri maps unlawfully dilute minority voting power. Republican plaintiffs now argue California is doing the opposite: enhancing the influence of Hispanic voters at others’ expense.

Proposition 50’s consequences are sweeping. For the 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections, districts will be drawn by the legislature, not the independent commission created to reduce partisan manipulation. One example already raising eyebrows: merging deeply conservative rural northern regions with Marin County, one of the most progressive enclaves in the country.

The Justice Department is asking a federal judge to block the map from being used at all.

Meanwhile, California has become a proving ground for Newsom’s national ambitions, with the governor confirming he will consider a 2028 presidential run. Trump, facing growing political headwinds and legal scrutiny, is leaning heavily into the fight, framing California as both a political and cultural opponent.