Donald Trump Snubs Gavin Newsom In Schedule For L.A. Visit To Survey Wildfire Damage; POTUS Says He Wants Voter ID As Condition For Disaster Aid — Update
UPDATED, with additional comments and participants: Donald Trump departed the White House on Friday for his first trip since his inauguration, with an itinerary that includes a visit to Los Angeles to survey fire damage and get an update on the recovery efforts in the Pacific Palisades.
But one name is not on the list of elected officials scheduled to attend a fire emergency briefing: California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is on the list, as are a number of congressional representatives including Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), whose district covers areas hardest hit by the disaster.
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On Thursday, Newsom said he planned to be on the tarmac to greet Trump, expected to arrive around 2:30 p.m. PT.
“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 told reporters. He said that he had not had any contact with the White House but he was “grateful that [Trump] took our invitation to heart.”
We’ve reached out to Newsom’s office about the latest plans, and will update. But a source said that his team had been blindsided when the president’s details of his visit were announced Friday morning.
There were reports that the White House invited Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA), but they each told Politico that they could not attend because of the Senate schedule, with confirmation votes on Trump’s Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth expected later today.
Before departing, Trump told reporters that he was unaware that Schiff — a frequent target of his attacks — had been invited. “Is he going? I don’t know. I mean, I really don’t know. If he’s going to be there, it would be cheaper, but I didn’t invite him. Somebody did.”
Trump’s schedule includes a neighborhood tour and an emergency briefing.
Trump is first traveling to North Carolina to survey recovery efforts from last fall’s Hurricane Helene.
Trump and Newsom have a long history of sparring. The president has referred to the governor as “Newscum,” while, shortly after Trump’s election, Newsom launched a legislative resistance effort to fund legal challenges to federal action.
The president has continued to blame Newsom for the fires, claiming it “could have been put out if they let the water flow but they didn’t let the water flow and they still haven’t, for whatever reason.”
But Newsom told reporters Thursday that “it is very damaging when people believe such misinformation. I don’t mean it in a malign sense. Maybe the president just doesn’t know that there’s not a spigot that can be turned to solve all the water problems that he alleges exist that don’t exist when it comes to the state water system here in California.”
City and state officials are counting on massive federal aid for recovery efforts, and Trump has talked of rebuilding Los Angeles as the 2028 Olympics approach. But Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity this week that he doesn’t “think we should give California anything until they let water flow down into their system.” The governor’s office has called the claim that he refused to sign a water restoration declaration “pure fiction.”
As he visited North Carolina this morning, Trump also talked of another condition on aid to California: Voter ID. “We want them to have voter ID so people have a voice…you don’t know who is voting. It’s very corrupt.”
Newsom’s office responded with a statement on X, writing, “Conditioning aid for American citizens is wrong.” They also noted that ID is required to register, while states that Trump won, like Nevada and Pennsylvania, do not generally require identification at polls.
Per the White House schedule, Trump will tour Pacific Palisades at mid-afternoon, accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump; Jeff Brown, chief of Los Angeles Fire Department Station 69; Jason Hing, chief deputy of emergency service, Los Angeles Fire Department; and affected homeowners Emily Bianchi and Mike and Gaby Shaw.
The president and first lady then will attend an emergency briefing, also in the Palisades, along with Ric Grenell, the presidential envoy for special missions; Bass; Rep. Jay Olbernolte (R-CA); Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA); Rep. Vince Fong (R-CA); Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA); Rep. Young Kim (R-CA); and Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA). In addition to Sherman, the only other congressional Democrat on the list is Rep. George Whitesides (D-CA).
Alos expected are Randy Moore, chief of the U.S. Forest Service; Los Angeles County Superviser Kathryn Barger; and Ed Ring, director of water and energy policy for the California Policy Center.
Later, Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) said in a statement that she and Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) at the briefing, while noting that the Republican congressional participants come from districts that were “unaffectred by recent wildfires.” She said that she would continue to press Trump to visit the damage from the Eaton fire, which is not on his schedule.
While Newsom has been striking a more conciliatory tone to Trump, save for pushing back on misinformation, the Democratic National Committee slammed the president for suggesting that disaster aid should be conditional.
Executive director Sam Cornale said in a statement, “When Americans are recovering from a disaster, there should be no red states and blue states. But Donald Trump doesn’t understand what it means to lead, and he is once again playing politics in the midst of a crisis, treating families in need as a bargaining chip to force his tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy through Congress. Trump is now even threatening to abandon states entirely, pulling all federal aid for disaster response. It’s time for Trump to stop putting his billionaire donors ahead of the American people and do his job.”
Trump also has suggested doing away with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and letting states take care of disasters, citing bureaucratic red tape in distributing aid.
Jessica Millan Patterson, chairwoman of the California Republican Party, said in a statemen that Trump’s visit “demonstrates this administration’s commitment to helping Californians tackle our state’s many challenges, including the rampant spread of wildfires, fueled by years of Democrat mismanagement. Gavin Newsom and California Democrats have lied about, underfunded and rejected critical wildfire prevention efforts, and even today, as fires continue, they are instead busy prioritizing their special session to ‘Trump-proof’ California.”
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