Former Trump aide makes case for red counties seeking blue state secession to do so: Mistreated and overtaxed

Former Trump national security official Michael Anton made his case for allowing counties in several blue states to essentially secede to form new states or become part of other neighboring ones that better match their socioeconomic values.

Anton also spoke of a similar effort in inland and northern California to break off from Sacramento and coastal liberal strongholds like San Francisco and Los Angeles – and become the 51st state of Jefferson. "Far northern California counties and the far southern Oregon counties for 20 years have been talking about leaving California, leaving Oregon, and forming the state of Jefferson," he said. "The reason is because these are really rural counties and they feel like they're totally dominated by a state capital that represents urban and suburban interests and either pays no attention to them, or worse, treats them badly, taxes and regulates them without any idea of what life is really like in these places." However, he noted that officials in Sacramento and Salem have no interest in allowing part of their state's tax base to leave, regardless of the state's treatment of these rural and working-class voters.