SACRAMENTO, Calif, Nov 12, (AP): California Gov Gavin Newsom plans to meet with the Biden administration this week to discuss zero-emission vehicles and disaster relief - issues that have been targeted in the past by President-elect Donald Trump. The Democratic governor is leaving for Washington on Monday and will return home Wednesday, his office said.

Newsom will also meet with California’s congressional delegation. He is seeking federal approval for state climate rules, a $5.2 billion reimbursement for emergency funding during the COVID-19 pandemic and updates to the state's Medicaid program, along with other priorities. The trip comes days after Newsom called for state lawmakers to convene a special session in December to protect California's liberal policies ahead of Trump's return to office in January.

Trump then criticized the governor on social media, calling out the high cost of living in California and the state's homelessness crisis. He said Newsom was "stopping all of the GREAT things that can be done to 'Make California Great Again.'” California won against most of the Trump administration's legal challenges over the state's environmental and other progressive policies during the Republican's first term, said Thad Kousser, a political science professor at the University of California San Diego.

"The question is: Has Donald Trump changed the legal playing field so much through the court appointments of his first term that he'll be able to win on policies in his second term?” he said. As president, Trump appointed more than 230 federal judges, including three justices to the US Supreme Court. The Trump administration in 2019 revoked California’s ability to enforce its own tailpipe emissions standards. President Joe Biden later restored the state’s authority, which was upheld in federal court.