“California will seek to work with the incoming president — but let there be no mistake, we intend to stand with states across our nation to defend our Constitution and uphold the rule of law,” he said.

The “resistance” that emerged after Trump’s first election in 2016 was an aggressive and at times violent movement that chose to reject Trump’s presidency through protests, culminating in the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020.

The term “resistance” is problematic. Newsom’s predecessor, Gov. Jerry Brown (D), rejected it: “I don’t use the term resistance … That was a term I associate with the French underground and people who risked their lives. So I don’t know that that’s a fair, apt metaphor for the latest contretemps over policy,” he told the New York Times in 2017.

“Resistance” also implies that the current administration is a kind of foreign entity or even a Nazi occupation.

The term “opposition” is more appropriate, but less romantic, to Democrats and the media.

For several years, Newsom was seen as a potential replacement for President Joe Biden if he could not run in 2024, but Newsom deferred to Harris, and Democrats denied there was anything wrong with Biden until the June debate.

His decision to step back in favor of Harris, and instead to campaign on her behalf, could put him in a good position to court party insiders.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.