Under the category of “hours wasted that I’ll regret on my death bed,” I spent part of last week sifting through responses to the presidential State of the Union Addresses.

Last month, newly elected California governor Gavin Newsom advised the state attorney general to file a lawsuit against the city of Huntington Beach, a California community that is about 35 miles south of Los Angeles and home to about 200,000 residents. Huntington Beach was once a sleepy beach community made famous in the 1960s by the Beach Boys for its remarkable surfing locations, but the city is now being sued by Newsom for not building enough housing. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s first budget comes when California is the most challenging state in the country for low- and middle-income households: California has the highest poverty rate of any of the 50 states. California also ranks 49th in both housing affordability and cost of living. It ranks 50th in homelessness, 40th in the overall tax burden and 42nd in how well it is educating its kindergarten through high school-age young people.

Let’s take a look at the complicated relationship between President Trump and California through a more military lens—namely, the question of winning battles or wars.