Trump pulled the US out of the World Health Organization; today Gavin Newsom announced

[Bluetus]

14. Absolutely. And while Trump is trying to form his Merry Band of Dictators to upend the UN,

Newsom should invite the major blue states to join a coalition that will represent the US at the W.H.O., the Climate Summits, and other international bodies Trump has pulled out of.

That would flip the script. We should not be afraid of the idea of a "soft secession". That is the kind of bold move that will shake up the corporate world to stop the Trump madness.

I bet these states would join Newsom, and it wouldn't cost them a billion dollars to join, either: Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Virginia, New Jersey, and some others. That list of states is 45% of the US GDP. Throw in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and you have more than half the country's GDP.

Call it the Alliance of Progressive States.

Let Trump sue those states and take it to the SCOTUS. And the answer should be exactly the same as when Trump faces a ruling: "Who is going to enforce that?" This coalition could very easily represent the US at the important gatherings all the way through the 2028 elections, and make meaningful steps toward salvaging the relationships with our allies.

There are a bunch of them:

* World Health Organization (WHO)
* Paris Climate Agreement
* UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
* UN Human Rights Council
* Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
* Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
* UN Population Fund (UNFPA)
* International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)