A California lawmaker is demanding Melania Trump’s immigration records. New Hampshire lawmakers have introduced a resolution demanding a federal probe into Trump University and “illegal financial or business dealings in which President TRUMP may have been involved.”

In Illinois, legislators are calling for an investigation into “Russian interference” in the 2016 election — and they’ve also drafted a formal invitation to Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, inviting him to their chambers to speak about the potential ill effect that a border wall could have on Mexico-Illinois relations.


In case it wasn’t clear, blue-state legislatures are not only in full frontal rebellion against President Donald Trump, they’re trolling him.

Since gaveling in this year, legislatures in states that went for Hillary Clinton have proposed a flood of laws or resolutions that mock, challenge or repudiate some of the most controversial aspects of Trump’s presidency. Some are designed for the sole purpose of needling Trump by reminding him that he lost the popular vote, or that his for-profit school Trump University has been under legal attack for years or that a state’s own relations with Mexico are strong.

And that’s on top of the legal challenges to Trump’s controversial travel ban, a push for protections to state reproductive rights laws and vocal defiance of Trump’s economic threats against immigrant "sanctuary cities."

"We not only have a fair amount of political power, we have market power. Trump will try to screw around with California at his own peril," said Garry South, a veteran California Democratic strategist. "We can pass pretty much whatever we want here. We cannot override federal law, but we can certainly set the tone for the country, and a lot of other states basically follow along. We're not powerless."

While many of the measures are merely symbolic in nature, the state lawmakers say they want their voices heard and are looking to pressure members of Congress. They also have a ready-made blueprint after red states employed similar tactics during the Obama administration.

Some of the efforts have gotten creative. Several states are trying to block Trump from their ballots in the future unless he discloses his taxes, or crafting bills that punish companies that go along with Trump’s policies.

If a firm wins a contract to build a wall along the Mexico-U.S. border, for example, it could risk financial repercussions in Illinois and New York. Each has legislative proposals to divest pension funds from companies that help construct a border wall.

Illinois, New Mexico and California are among Democratic-majority states attempting to pass laws requiring future presidential candidates to reveal their federal income tax records — dating back five years — if they want to appear on that state’s ballot.

“So many of us were outraged that Trump didn't release his tax returns and that he was elected nonetheless, we want to make sure that this never happens again,” said state Sen. Daniel Biss, who is sponsoring the Illinois tax disclosure bill. Biss said he believed the bill was on solid constitutional footing, arguing that individual states already impose varying requirements for candidates to make the ballot.

Biss said just as important are legislative proposals to bar the state police from being used to enforce Trump’s order concerning undocumented immigrants, and ensuring abortion is protected and women are not criminalized if Roe v. Wade is reversed.

“These laws would have been important if Hillary Clinton were elected president, but there’s a new level of urgency in this moment when so many rights that we had come to view as automatic are being threatened,” Biss said. “We recognize that states have a type of authority that have been present all along but not necessary to exercise until now.”

New Mexico has similar tax disclosure bills in the works in the House and Senate that call for publishing a candidate’s federal tax forms on a state website. “If a candidate fails to comply with the requirements, their name shall not be printed on the general election ballot,” the measure states.

In the wake of Trump’s executive order limiting funds to sanctuary cities, a California state senator called for Melania Trump to release her own immigration records. The AP reported in November that the Slovenia-born first lady lacked proper work visas when she was first employed as a model in the United States.

“No one in the Trump operation has released any of the documentation to indicate what was the circumstance, or whether she had full legal status,’’ state Sen. Nancy Skinner told POLITICO California in a recent interview.

California’s legislature, meanwhile, in December introduced a joint resolution calling for the elimination of the Electoral College, taking care to point out the popular-vote totals that so irk the president.

“Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is leading the popular vote by over 2,000,000 votes in the 2016 general election, but still is expected to lose the presidency to presumed President-elect Donald Trump who has a majority of the electors in the electoral college pledged to him,” it stated. “That would mean that twice in the past 16 years the candidates for President and Vice President of the United States who won the popular vote still lost the election because they did not win a majority of the votes in the electoral college.”

It’s not likely that the Mexican president, who recently canceled a visit with Trump, will show up before a joint session of the Illinois legislature. But Democrats say it’s worth asking.

“We formally invite Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to address a joint session of the Illinois General Assembly to discuss the proposed border wall, the impact of a 20% tariff on goods imported from Mexico to pay for the wall, and the economic impact that such a wall and President Trump's policies will have on Illinois and Mexico,” the proposed House resolution states.

Illinois House Deputy Majority Leader Lou Lang said such moves send a message that the state rejects policies handed down from Washington. “We have a strong feeling of inclusiveness, we have a strong feeling about the wall not only what it means for openness of immigration policies of America but also our standing in the world,” Lang said.

He added that Illinois may be headed toward a debate over whether the entire state should become an immigrant sanctuary. “Certainly there are those in the legislature who believe we should do that; I would expect a proposal to come about,” Lang said. “I think it will be a huge war in the legislature when it happens. But an argument worth having.”

Illinois state Sen. Daniel Biss is sponsoring a bill that would require future presidential candidates to reveal their federal income tax records to appear on state ballots. | AP Photo

Republicans dismiss the spate of anti-Trump legislation as pointless and nakedly partisan.

“What a colossal waste of time, especially in a state like Illinois, when we’re on the brink of a budget collapse,” said former Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady. “That’s why we have people we send to Congress — they’re called congressmen or congresswomen. Maybe in other states it’s appropriate. In this state, it’s a huge waste. To me it’s emblematic of everything wrong with the Democrats’ approach to government.”

ACLU Illinois director Ed Yohnka said he and colleagues in California, Massachusetts and New York are expecting even more Trump-driven legislative proposals, aimed at protecting LGBT rights or legislating checks on policing powers.

“There is a real palpable fear of what this Congress and what this White House does to basic protections to the people of Illinois,” Yohnka said. “This is among these blue states, I think among people there is this desire to use state law in the same way to advance rights and protections in the same ways we’ve seen in [red states] for the past eight years. I think the resolutions are just legislators giving voice to the kinds of anxieties and outrage that they hear when they’re having meetings with their constituents.”