In the Trump era, quick on the draw

California's fast push for new maps reflects the hyper-partisanship over redistricting.

- BY KEVIN RECTOR, DAVID G. SAVAGE, MELODY GUTIERREZ AND LAURA J. NELSON

REP. JON ROSENTHAL, a Texas Democrat, speaks in Austin after the passage of the redistricting bill.

In an evening social media post about a supremely partisan battle that could reshape American political power for generations, President Trump sounded ebullient.

"Big WIN for the Great State of Texas!!! Everything Passed, on our way to FIVE more Congressional seats and saving your Rights, your Freedoms, and your Country, itself," Trump wrote, of the nation's most populous red state pushing a mid-decade redistricting plan designed to win more Republican seats in Congress and protect Trump's power through the 2026 midterms.

"Texas never lets us down. Florida, Indiana, and others are looking to do the same thing," Trump wrote — nodding to a potential proliferation of such efforts across the country.

The next day, Gov. Gavin Newsom projecting a fresh swagger as Trump's chief antagonist on the issue - stood with fellow lawmakers from the nation's most populous blue state to announce their own legislative success in putting to voters a redrawn congressional map for California that strongly favors Democrats.

"We got here because the president of the United States is one of the most unpopular presidents in U.S. history," Newsom said, couching the California effort as defensive rather than offensive. "We got here because he recognizes that he will lose the election, [and that] Congress will go back into the hands of the Democratic Party next November." In the last week, with lightning speed, the nation's foremost political leaders have jettisoned any pretense of political fairness - any notion of voters being equal or elected representatives reflecting their constituencies in favor of an all-out partisan war for power that has some politicians and many political observers concerned for the future of American democracy.