Much remains to be seen out of the Trump campaign's California operation. | Getty Trump campaign moves to contest California, sort of

Donald Trump’s promise to contest California in the general election was more than just talk. Though how much more remains to be seen.

On Tuesday, the campaign sent an email to supporters in California inviting them to a July 13 training session for the “Trump Leadership Initiative (TLI) Fellowship Program” in the city of Stanton, in Orange County.


“TLI Fellows are the backbone of the Trump strategy to launch the largest, earliest, and most diverse ground operation in California history,” the email states. “Fellows will be trained and experienced in grassroots organizing, field operations, cutting-edge campaign technology, messaging & communications, and engaging in voter contact.”

California has been reliably blue in recent presidential elections, and its large Hispanic population has Republican leaders in the state worried that Trump’s candidacy could set the party back another generation there. So political analysts had greeted Trump’s claims ahead of California’s June 7 primary that he would return in the general election to contest the state with skepticism. So the campaign’s follow-through is noteworthy.

But in a sign of the Trump campaign’s reliance on the Republican National Committee for the nuts and bolts of its campaign, the email directs supporters to an Eventbrite page promoting a training session for the Republican Leadership Institute, the party’s existing program. The page does not mention Trump, suggesting that rather than being run by the campaign, the Trump fellowship is an arrangement akin to the businessman’s commercial licensing deals, in which he puts his name on services administered by third parties.

The email and the Eventbrite page do not specify whether Trump campaign staffers will participate in the event or provide Trump fellows with training distinct from that given to Republican fellows.

Spokeswomen for Trump and the RNC did not immediately respond to requests for additional information about the event.