president Donald Trump She visited California on Friday to see the devastation from wildfires that have torn through the Los Angeles area Continue to promote chaosHe retracted some of the harsh rhetoric about the state he had used in recent days.
Landing on a tarmac in Los Angeles, Trump was greeted by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, a frequent sparring partner who struck a more conciliatory tone during brief remarks to reporters at the airport. A short distance away stood the remains of a burned-out area that Trump now said looked like it had “been hit by a bomb.”
“There can be no Gilded Age without the Golden State,” Trump told the governor. It is a great country. It’s an amazing place. ”
Newsom told Trump, “We’re going to need your help.”
“You’ve been there for us through Covid,” he said. “I don’t forget that, and I have every expectation that we will be able to work together to have that quick recovery.”
During a roundtable with lawmakers and officials after they toured neighborhoods moved by the fire, Trump said he would declare a national emergency to speed up the response to the wildfires, What he called “a hell of death and destruction,” he urged changes again to the state’s water policies.
Trump, just a few days into his second term, blames Biden’s fire response, even after former President Joe Biden got… consent A major disaster declaration for California, an executive action that increases funds and resources available to people in difficult areas. The president heard as one legislator shared a heroic recount of firefighters and law enforcement who killed about 4,000 people in six hours.
He argued briefly with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat who was outside as wildfires began to tear through her city, urging her to help.
“They want to go to work, and they’re not allowed to do that,” Trump said. He said he would put Rick Grenell, a longtime aide, former ambassador, and newly named envoy for special duties, in charge.
California officials have expressed concerns about hazardous waste in areas where fires have destroyed homes QSpecial teams They work to remove explosive and toxic materials A January 15 News He releases From Newsom’s office.
The visit was Trump’s first presidential trip in his second term after a week that saw the president begin his new Cabinet at Breakneck speed. Trump has issued dozens of carefully crafted orders and issued more than 1,500 pardons to January 6 defendants, anti-abortion protesters and Silk Way founder Ross Ulbricht.
On Friday, he began visiting hurricane-ravaged North Carolina, where, in front of the home of evangelical leader Franklin Graham, he shared what he said was his message to the people of the region: “Forget no more.”
Trump, at every turn, seems to offer another message to the people of California. Trump said before leaving the White House on Friday that the fires, which have now been burning for weeks, “could have been put out.” “They still haven’t for whatever reason.”
“It would be good if they turned on the water,” the president added.
Among the advisers accompanying the president on the trip are his chief of staff Susie Wales, national security adviser Mike Waltz and first lady Melania Trump. Signing in and out of Air Force One alongside the group is Hollywood producer Brett Ratner, who is directing the Amazon documentary about the first lady. Other crew members traveled with them.
Trump blamed California’s Democratic leaders at state and local levels for the ongoing fire, arguing that wildlife protections have impeded access to the water.
“I want to see water released and going down to Los Angeles and throughout the state,” Trump continued after landing in North Carolina.
He later suggested that he could withhold disaster aid to California because of disagreements over voter ID laws and water policies.
“In California, we want them to have voter ID, so people have a voice, because right now, people don’t have a voice because you don’t know who’s voting, and it’s so corrupt,” he said. “If they released the water when I told them to, because I told them to do it seven years ago, if they had done that, you wouldn’t have had the problem.”
Even as he previewed the visit earlier this week, she promised to “take care of Los Angeles,” shortly after suggesting in a Fox News interview that federal aid to California could be overwhelmed by state conservation efforts. Delta smellLittle Fish became a Trump installation and even the subject of a todaye IMorandum. The directive, which calls for “putting the people over the fish,” would augment the state’s water policy.
Trump has blamed water shortages in the Los Angeles area on policies aimed at preserving endangered fish, arguing more water flows from Northern California to Southern California.
“I don’t think we should give California anything until they let the water run,” he said in an interview with Fox News.
Newsom has previously criticized Trump’s comments about wildfires, Tell NBC News On January 12, Trump was “somehow linking the Delta fire to this fire, which is inexcusable because it’s inaccurate. And also, incomprehensible to anyone who understands water policy in the state.”
Trump also noted during the Fox News interview he He would like to see big changes at FEMA, and without elaborating, said he “sees states taking care of their problems.”
Speaking to reporters on the tarmac in Asheville On Friday, Trump made clear he believes FEMA has “failed the country” and may recommend a new approach to minimize its role and allow states to take the lead in disaster response. He said he would ask for new aid from Congress, but “instead of going through FEMA, it will go through us.”
Trump criticized FEMA again during his trip to California, saying the agency is “no good anymore.”
Trump and Newsom, who previously called on him to survey wildfire damage, have publicly faltered since Trump’s first term in office when Californians sued his administration dozens of times. These efforts could quickly ramp up as Trump enacts a combination of tough immigration orders and phase-in efforts that run counter to the desires of California’s Democratic leadership.
After Trump won the 2024 election, Newsom said he would again launch a legal assault on the new administration, proposing to raise a war chest of tens of millions of dollars for the battle.
Trump had previously indicated that his visit on Friday would be to North Carolina, which was hit by Hurricane Helene last year This was partly due to politics, “because these people were treated so badly by the Democrats.”
Trump said Friday that the destruction had been allowed to be “uneven” under Biden, with cleanup “that should have been done months ago.”
Trump tours the Palisades on Friday He is Followed by a trip to Nevada, a state that has not had a major natural disaster in recent months. The president left for Nevada shortly after touring wildfire damage and participating in a roundtable.
Politics also drives that visit. Trump previously said Nevada was included in his trip An itinerary so he could “thank them for voting” after he won the swing state in November.
