#CalExit: Californians want to quit US over Trump’s policies

Donald Trump’s emergence as the 45th President of the United States of America is not going down well with some Californians who are dreaming of their own country following hard stance policies being implemented by the new administration.

A new Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll shows that one in every three California residents supports the state’s peaceful withdrawal from the union with many of them Democrats strongly opposed to Trump’s ascension to the country’s highest office.

Furthermore the survey conducted on the most populous U.S. state shows 32 per cent support rate is sharply higher than the last time the poll asked Californians about secession, in 2014, when one-in-five or 20 per cent favoured it.

Though the impulse to break away carries on in some corners of the country, most notably in Texas, interest has remained about the same nationwide, but it has found more favor in California and the concept has even earned a catchy name – “Calexit”, meaning that the idea of secession is largely a settled matter in the United States.

Read also: Global backlash trails Trump’s Muslim immigration ban

“I don’t think it’s likely to happen, but if things get really bad it could be an option,” said Stephen Miller, 70, a retired transportation planner who lives in Sacramento and told pollsters he “tended to support” secession.

The Muslim immigration ban signed into law by Trump which restricts refugees and immigrants of several Muslim-majority countries from entering America has sparked growing protests in cities across the US, including in New York City and Washington, DC.

Trump has also received knocks from governments from London and Berlin to Jakarta and Tehran who spoke out against his order to put a four-month hold on allowing refugees into the United States and temporarily ban travellers from Syria and six other Muslim-majority countries.

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