Gov. Gavin Newsom emerged in 2018 confronting one of the deadliest and most destructive fires in the state’s history: the Camp Fire. Even before he was sworn in, Mr. Newsom accompanied Donald Trump, then the president, and Jerry Brown, then the governor, on an inspection of a The fire It killed 85 people and consumed more than 153,000 acres around the Butte County town of Pradottes.
On Friday, more than six years later, Mr. Newsom will once again greet Mr. Trump as the president comes to Los Angeles to watch the aftermath of the latest devastating wildfires to sweep through California.
These new fires — in the Pacific Palisades section of Los Angeles and in Altadena — serve as a reminder that Mr. Newsom’s tenure as governor has been defined by the catastrophic and crisis-ridden Covid pandemic, and Times of violent protests against police brutality After the killing of George Floyd.
“It’s mind-boggling the number of natural disasters and the opposite that he’s had to deal with during his time as governor,” said Anthony Rendon, who served as California Assembly speaker from 2016 to 2023.
But the challenge of the Mower and Eaton fires, both in extinguishing them and overseeing the rebuilding of entire neighborhoods in the nation’s most populous county, may be his greatest test yet.
It has long-term implications for any political career Mr. Newsom might pursue when his term expires in 2026 (he is barred by law from seeking a third term). He has made no secret of his interest in running for president in 2028, and Democrats say his successes and failures in the coming months will be key to how — and how opponents pitch him — he should run.
Already putting him in a combative position with Mr. Trump, who imposed, as in the wake of the Camp Fire, Inaccurate claims About California Policies. (Mr. Newsom sought to retract some of the misinformation, creating Page in his campaign A website provides “California fire facts.”)
in Interview with Sean Hannity from Fox News On Wednesday, Mr. Trump attacked Mr. Newsom and California for water and forest management policies that he claimed were responsible for the fires, but state officials and fire experts said had no connection to the Los Angeles disaster. Mr. Trump has threatened to withhold disaster aid from California unless it changes how it manages its water.
“Because it happened in Los Angeles, and because it happened at the level that it did, there will be a spotlight on this story for years,” said Adam Mendelsohn, who was a senior adviser to Arnold Schwarzenegger, a former Republican governor who dealt with it. His own share of disasters. “Every mistake will be magnified, every win will be magnified. If I work for it, I will see this as the opportunity of a lifetime. These are the events that define leaders.”
The fires have posed new questions for Los Angeles and its leaders as they prepare for what will already be a slew of events here, including the World Cup in 2026 and the Super Bowl in 2027. Concern over whether Los Angeles can manage the dual tasks of rebuilding while Hosting the Olympic Games in 2028.
“The economics of this, the timing with the Olympics, the issues of the new president coming in,” said Robert Hertzberg, a former senator and former Senate president.
Mr. Hertzberg ran a slate of neoconservatives for the state. “Arnold had a zillion fires,” he said of Mr. Schwarzenegger. The Wilson House has had a bunch of fires. Gray Davis. But nothing like that. “
The fires over the past two weeks illustrate the extent to which California, hotter and drier than ever, is on the front edge of the battlefield grappling with climate change. As Mr. Hertzberg noted, when Edmund J. Brown, father of Jerry Brown, was governor from 1959 to 1967. California was a very different state, with a very different frequency of emergencies. “The day it opened, he came out and played golf,” Mr. Hertzberg said of Mr. Brown.
Mr. Newsom has been a high-profile presence since the fires first broke out, making regular and often unannounced visits to the sites of both the Palisades Fire, which was in the city of Los Angeles, and the Eaton Fire, which was In an unincorporated area Los Angeles County. He signed executive orders aimed at helping fight the fire and begin rebuilding. He has largely escaped the kind of widespread criticism that another mayor, Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles, faced over her handling of the fires. Ms Bass had to endure widespread attacks and scrutiny for being outside when the fires broke out.
On Thursday afternoon, Mr. Newsom was in Pasadena, where he signed two projects to provide $2.5 billion in state funds to support response and recovery efforts in Los Angeles.
“I just got back from the Hughes Fire,” Mr. Newsom said, referring to a new brush fire that broke out on Wednesday. He walked up to a lecturer wearing jeans and a black parka, standing before elected officials gathered at a Pasadena school that opened Thursday for the first time since the fires.
Mr. Newsom finds himself in a politically complicated position as Mr. Trump comes to California: At once a leader among Democrats pushing the new president’s policies, while simultaneously saying he and Mr. Trump — who regularly denigrates Mr. Newsom by referring to him as Gavin Newscum — will “Collaboratively and collaboratively” to address the crisis here.
He said he believed the Republican-controlled Congress would repay California for the $2.5 billion he had just authorized. But at the same time, he attacked Mr. Trump for his “assault on the 14th Amendment,” referring to Mr. Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship, and defended efforts by California to fund legal actions against various Trump policies.
“None of this is personal in any way, shape or form,” Mr. Newsom told reporters. “Some people want to politicize things. That’s not our approach. I have every expectation and belief that we will be compensated for those dollars.” He added, “I’m here for the long haul to support the president where we can, to defend our values where we must.”
Mr. Newsom said at the news conference that he did not know whether he would be invited to accompany Mr. Trump as he visited parts of the state, but said he would go to the airport to greet him when he arrived. The governor said he had not spoken to Mr. Trump since leaving the White House in 2020. He said he called Mr. Trump after his win, and again when the fires started, but had not heard from the president.
The past few decades are filled with instances in which political leaders’ reputations have risen or fallen based on how they respond to disasters.
In New York, Rudolph W. Giuliani became known as America’s mayor for how he led his city after the September 11 attacks. Andrew M. won. Cuomo received national praise, at least initially, as governor of New York for his daily rants on the Covid pandemic.
By contrast, George W. Bush Face the ridicule For his initial response after Hurricane Katrina flooded large swaths of New Orleans in 2005. Mr. Newsom himself has been mocked in the midst of the Covid pandemic, after advising residents to stay home and wear masks but being photographed mask-less Attend a crowded birthday dinner For a political consultant at the French Laundry, one of the most expensive restaurants in the country.
For Mr. Newsom and other elected officials in California, the months ahead promise to be watched and filled with obstacles, at a time when Mr. Newsom is already under attack by Republicans and Congress.
Mr. Newsom’s longtime opponents have begun criticizing how the state prepared to arrive at the fire and actually responded. There have been at least half a dozen such efforts since his election, only one of which made the ballot. That attempt, In 2021 In the wake of the French laundry ring, he failed, and more than 60 percent of Californians voted to keep him in office.
Gray Davis, the former governor and lieutenant governor, said he believed Mr. Newsom had raised his profile in Los Angeles because of the way he responded to the fire. But he added that the final judgment on how Mr. Newsom fares in this crisis will come years from now, when the shape of the project ahead — rebuilding Los Angeles — becomes clear.
Mr. Davis said in all his years in Los Angeles, he couldn’t remember anything like the past two weeks.
“We have flooding, we have fires, we have mudslides,” said Mr. Davis, who was governor from 1999 to 2003. “But I don’t think there’s anything worse than the embers of a fire. I don’t think there’s anything more terrifying than the fires that we’ve had.” Last weeks in Los Angeles.
Shawn Hubler Contributed reporting.
