AG Bonta Sues Trump Admin Over USDA Grant Conditions Enforcing Immigration Law, Biological Reality, and Merit

In what has become a ritual of resistance, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Monday he is co-leading a 21-state coalition in yet another federal lawsuit against the Trump administration—this time targeting the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s efforts to attach common-sense conditions to billions in federal nutrition grants. 

The new terms, issued December 31, 2025, require grant recipients to align with President Trump’s executive orders on ending taxpayer subsidies for open borders, defending biological truth against gender ideology extremism, keeping men out of women’s sports, and restoring merit-based opportunity by ending illegal DEI discrimination.

Bonta and his Democrat allies call these policies “vague, hateful, and unrelated.” Critics maintain they’re long-overdue guardrails to ensure federal food assistance dollars actually serve American families, not progressive pet projects or illegal immigrants. 

Filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the complaint claims the conditions violate the Constitution’s Spending Clause, exceed USDA authority, and flout the Administrative Procedure Act. 

The coalition—led by Bonta alongside the attorneys general of Massachusetts, Wisconsin, and Illinois, and joined by 17 other mostly Democratic states plus D.C.—wants the court to permanently block the rules. At stake: billions in annual funding for school lunches, SNAP (food stamps), and WIC programs that feed California’s students, infants, and low-income households.

California alone received more than $2 billion in child nutrition funding last year through the state Department of Education, multiple $1 billion-plus SNAP grants via the Department of Social Services, and roughly $1.65 billion combined for WIC services through the Department of Public Health. Bonta warns these “critical lifelines” are now “at risk.” 

Attorney General Bonta stated: “This attack on vital programs is just another line item in the President’s long list of failed attempts to weaponize essential funding as a political bargaining chip. It was illegal before, and it’s still illegal now.” He added, “Instead of helping vulnerable families and children, President Trump is attempting to use funds as leverage for other points on his political to-do list. … We don’t wake up looking to fight against the Trump Administration; we’re fighting for Californians. Unfortunately, all too often, those end up being the same fight. Once again, we will see this Administration in court.”

The Trump administration’s conditions simply demand accountability—verifying immigration status to stop fraud, upholding Title IX’s protection of women’s sports, rejecting biological males in girls’ athletics and private spades, and scrapping discriminatory DEI mandates that have nothing to do with feeding children. 

As the California Globe has repeatedly documented, Bonta has turned the Attorney General’s office into a taxpayer-funded war room dedicated to obstructing Trump’s agenda. This marks just the latest chapter in his endless legal assault. 

In August 2025, Bonta filed what was then described as his 37th lawsuit against President Trump—this one challenging restrictions on “mutilation and child chemical castration” in gender-transition procedures for minors.

Earlier that summer, he and 20 other AGs sued the USDA over demands for SNAP recipient data to verify immigration status and combat fraud, calling it a “chilling effect” on illegal immigrants accessing benefits.  

The Globe’s ongoing tracker of Bonta’s federal court filings against the Trump administration paints a clear picture of a partisan crusade: dozens of suits on immigration enforcement, transgender ideology in schools and sports, DEI mandates, tariffs, disaster aid, and more. Just weeks ago, the Globe reported on Nevada AG Aaron Ford joining Bonta’s coalition in the “latest legal assault” on Trump tariffs. 

California taxpayers foot the bill for Bonta’s courtroom crusades while the state grapples with homelessness, crime, and budget shortfalls. 

Meanwhile, President Trump’s executive orders—Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism, Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders, Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports, and Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity—simply direct federal agencies to follow the law and protect American citizens first.

Bonta claims California doesn’t “wake up looking to fight against the Trump Administration” but insists “those end up being the same fight” as “fighting for Californians.” 

Yet nearly everyday, Californians wake up to a new lawsuit as Bonta continues his fight against the Trump administration. In fact, while writing this story, we received a press release on Tuesday that another lawsuit by Bonta:

“Today, Bonta announced a new lawsuit against the Trump Administration challenging the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Chris Wright’s “Pipeline Capacity Prioritization and Allocation Order” (Order) and seeking to halt its use as the basis for Sable Offshore Corp.’s (Sable) unlawful restart of two California onshore oil pipelines that are subject to State regulation and oversight.”

Attorney General Bonta has now filed or led/co-led more than 60 lawsuits against the Trump administration since President Trump’s second inauguration on January 20, 2025. 

Bonta’s personal legal crusade is designed to shield sanctuary-state policies, gender ideology in schools, and reckless, unverified state spending that has metastasized and simply “disappeared.”

The Trump administration has already secured court victories blocking similar overreach. Expect this case to meet the same fate. California families deserve nutrition programs free from partisan strings—but they also deserve leaders who prioritize real needs over endless lawsuits.