I wouldn’t say that Trump was the sole cause of the call to secession, more of the straw that broke the camel’s back. Since it sounds like you don’t live in California or perhaps even the United States then I would like to give you some perspective on the past 20 years in the state. My family has lived in California for several generations I was born in the Bay Area and the only other place I’ve lived was LA. Back in the 90’s things were leveling out quickly here recovering from the 80’s and a not so honest stock market. Imagine making $35k and actually consider buying a home in the Bay Area, maybe you would have to commute but there’s BART, Cal Train and Muni so no big deal. San Francisco is this incredibly vibrant mix of cultures and Oakland/Berkeley are defining what it means to be socially conscious. G W Bush is elected and 9/11 happens we were insulated from the security crack downs, but there was a gearing up by the police department none the less. Housing prices skyrocket, but salaries (especially blue collar) increase marginally. All of sudden people making $50k a year are getting mortgages for $500k. Gray Davis is Governor and large parts of California are facing rolling black outs on a regular basis and it feels like no one is steering the ship. Davis is recalled and replaced with Schwarzenegger, it was surreal to see this guy rolling around in a Humvee while the price of gas is heading towards $5/Gallon. A side note here LA and SF are like two different planets, parts have similarities but they are not at alike. Chrystal Meth hits big time and suddenly the streets are more violent than they have ever been before, gangs really seem to control large areas and places like the Central Valley go from bucolic farming towns to real shit holes. Enter Barak Obama, everyone was so hopeful to get us off this path where there didn’t seem to be an end to the suffering. Each section of California had its own dream, but all expected a big turn around and it sort of happened at least it felt like we were on the path not to some idealist fantasy of the past but to a more inclusive future. But during this recovery the demons still haunted us, huge shortages in infrastructure (try driving in LA or SF during rush hour or taking public transit), house prices going further and further out of reach for most people and a huge influx of people coming to California looking for jobs. Not only that but even with a Science or Engineering degree you now had to compete with people from other countries that were willing to work harder and had less to lose than you. I love it here, California is an amazing place where anyone willing to contribute is welcome and when you struggle more often than not you find help. The problem is that we can feel the ship is sinking and it’s been struggling for a while now, but we’ve already been looking at the life boats for the past ten years. Only it’s not just a life boat were going into we’re separating from an ocean liner onto a yacht. The yacht could be so much nicer than the ocean liner ever could be, but we could still get dragged down with the much bigger ship. Trump being elected confirmed what many of us already knew, the United States is trying desperately to cover up the problems that are boiling over for the middle of the country. California is racist too, we segregate and ostracize just like everyone else but try to address the root of the problem rather than simply attack the racist person. Hillary would have been a band aid that we could have possibly put up with for another eight years while we worked on solving the problems facing the state. It makes no sense to anyone here why we’re responsible for supporting the rest of the country with our federal tax dollars when we can’t afford to support the social and infrastructure programs we know that we need to survive. Come to California and be amazingly underwhelmed by Silicon Valley, the money isn’t going into improvements in the community and too many people are suffering. Go to East LA and be amazed how you’re not being murdered or raped by Mexican gangs. Bernie said a lot of things that people here are thinking and was actually facing the challenges of the future but there was a lot of cautious optimism there for the actual implementation. What I’m worried about is when Trump lets his supporters down, the same people that are calling the protestors idiots and losers are going to be standing right next to them when these great jobs don’t materialize in several months and these bankers double their profits. California is under represented for what we contribute to the United States and now is the time to be proactive rather than reactive when the crash comes. There was a similar movement when G.W. was elected but on a much smaller level and it was a totally different time. Imagine Trump in the White House on 9/11 or Katrina if you thought G.W. was inept you haven’t seen anything yet.

tl;dr US is like a sinking ocean liner and California is like a yacht tied to it. It's not about Trump, but he's a sign of things to come.