Donald Trump promised he would get the devastation by the Los Angeles “permanently fixed” when he landed in California to assess the damage. He also offered federal aid to governor Gavin Newsom, but quickly joked, “unless you don’t need any.”
Newsom assured him, “We’re going to need a lot of federal help.”
Trump, who touched down after touring the damage caused by Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, told reporters, “Nothing like this has happened, and we’re going to get it fixed, so we will get it permanently fixed so that it can never happen again. We’re looking to get something completed, and the way you get it completed is to work together,” he continued.
Earlier this month, Trump nicknamed the governor “Newscum,” writing on Truth Social, “He is the blame for this. On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes. A true disaster!”
Trump referred to a “water restoration declaration” that would theoretically allow water to pumped from Northern California to Southern California. Newsom’s press team, meanwhile, responded on X to say, “There is no such document as the water restoration declaration – that is pure fiction.”
The president has mentioned putting “conditions” on providing federal aid to Blue states. Former senior advisor Mark Harvey revealed last year that Trump had withheld aid after a previous round of wildfires in California, until Harvey showed him that several affected areas were largely Republican.
On Jan. 13, proposed $2.5 billion in wildfire relief from the state, which would support recovery and cleanup as well as additional wildfire preparedness and reopening schools shuttered by the fires.
