President Donald Trump is set to follow his Friday visit to North Carolina, which was hit by Hurricane Helene, with a trip to wildfire-ravaged Southern California. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a longtime Trump nemesis, said he has yet to hear from the president—but plans to greet him at the airport anyway.
“I look forward to being there on the tarmac to thank the president, welcome him, and we’re making sure that all the resources he needs for a successful briefing are provided to him,” Newsom said to reporters on Thursday in Pasadena, where he signed two bills greenlighting $2.5 billion in recovery efforts. “There’s no limit to the resources we’ll provide for that briefing.”
Wildfires continue to batter Southern California, with a new one threatening San Diego County as of Friday. Fueled by record winds, the firestorm has killed 25 people and caused a staggering $250 billion in estimated damages, making it one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history.
Despite the devastation, Trump and the GOP-led Congress have floated the idea of withholding federal aid for the Golden State. He has also lied and said that California officials mismanaged the water supply after some fire hydrants in the Pacific Palisades area ran dry at the height of the fires. Los Angeles firefighters refuted this claim, arguing that hurricane-strength winds battering a drought-ravaged landscape mean “no water system in the world” could’ve stopped the wildfires.
Trump has repeatedly spread misinformation about the causes of the Los Angeles fires and suggested he will not release any aid unless the state changes its policies or caves on his mass deportation plans. On Friday, he told reporters he wants mandatory voter identification added to the list of capitulations he’s demanding from the progressive state—something experts say leads to voter suppression.
“People want to have voter identification. You want to have proof of citizenship. Ideally, you have one-day voting. But I just want voter ID as a start, and I want the water to be released,” Trump said on a tarmac in Asheville, North Carolina, repeating nonsensical claims about California’s water supply. “After that, I will be the greatest president that California has ever seen.”
Trump also repeatedly said he plans to overhaul or get rid of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is tasked with responding to natural disasters.
“I think we’re going to recommend that FEMA go away,” Trump said, adding that he’d dismantle the agency by signing an executive order. As Daily Kos reported, this is sure to hit the red states that voted for him the hardest.
Trump: “I’ll be signing an EO to begin process of fundamentally reforming & overhauling or maybe getting rid of FEMA. I think, frankly, FEMA is not good. When you have a problem like this, you want to use your state to fix it & not waste time calling FEMA..I think we’re gonna recommend FEMA go away” [image or embed]— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 24, 2025 at 8:49 AM
Trump has a history of playing politics with cities and states devastated by natural disasters if their leaders and voters disagree with him politically. His tried-and-true gambits include issuing threats via social media and spreading misinformation and conspiracies about FEMA recovery efforts, with conservative media following his lead.
As a possible 2028 Democratic presidential contender, Newsom is not backing down from his standoff with Trump. Despite the ongoing tensions, he has consistently emphasized that his focus remains on getting aid to Californians, and not on petty partisan squabbles.
“My message to the incoming administration, and I’m not here to play any politics, is please don’t play any politics,” Newsom said during a Jan. 7 press conference.
It’s hard to ignore the sense that for Trump, this trip is more about posturing than problem-solving, and Newsom’s challenge to the new administration has set the stage for a potential confrontation. But the Golden State’s dire need has made the political chess game all the more frustrating for the thousands of people affected by the fires.
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