Newsom said Saturday afternoon that President-elect Donald Trump did not accept Gov. Gavin Newsom’s invitation to tour California fire damage.
Newsom sent a letter Friday inviting the president-elect to join him in California to meet with fire victims, survey the devastation in Los Angeles County and express gratitude to first responders. The governor’s office said the invitation, which was emailed to Trump’s team, follows some of the political battles between Newsom and Trump, with Newsom pleading with Trump not to politicize the tragedy. A change in tone was observed.
Newsom gave a testy response Saturday to a question about whether he expected President Trump to accept the invitation.
“He is the next president of the United States,” Newsom told reporters Saturday while standing in front of a giant CalGuard Black Hawk helicopter on the tarmac at Los Angeles airport. “The leader of the free world, the most powerful person in the United States of America, would you honor the plea of the 40 million Americans who happen to live in California, the hundreds of thousands of people still displaced? I expect there will be a recovery effort going on right now that includes cadaver dogs looking for human remains and being here for the American people during emergencies and recovery.”
President Trump’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Kathryn Berger, chairwoman of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, echoed Newsom’s call on Saturday, inviting Trump herself and urging the president-elect to help county residents rebuild.
In recent days, devastating mass fires have brought unprecedented destruction to the Los Angeles metropolitan area, destroying thousands of buildings and killing at least 13 people. Reconstruction will cost billions of dollars and test relationships at all levels of government.
President Biden, who is close to Newsom, has promised that the federal government will cover 100% of California’s disaster relief costs for the next 180 days. But Biden will leave office on January 20, and recovery efforts are likely to continue for years to come.
Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks to reporters at LAX on Saturday.
(Karlin Stiel/For the Times)
Newsom, whose term ends in 2026, is widely seen as eyeing the White House. As governor, Newsom used the state’s position as the liberal antithesis of Trump to raise his national profile during the president-elect’s first term.
Their war of words on social media and in news headlines has given Newsom an opportunity to define himself as a warrior for Democratic values that the Trump administration is trying to erode. Newsom and California similarly endeared the president to his base by giving him an opportunity to criticize the stupidity of the Democratic administration.
Less than 36 hours after Trump won the 2024 presidential election, Newsom called a special session of Congress and gave the California Department of Justice an additional $25 million to pursue a legal battle against the incoming administration. gave to.
The special session quickly rekindled the California-versus-Trump dynamic from four years ago, with Newsom trying to downplay any political motivations and seeking to protect environmental policy, abortion access and other state priorities. He said his own experience has proven that preparation is necessary.
Asked Saturday whether he regretted calling a special session of Congress and publicly rekindling tensions with the president-elect, Newsom flatly demurred.
Citing the state’s numerous lawsuits with Trump during his time in office and previous threats, Newsom said, “We cannot prepare for the inevitable: an attack on our values and our diverse communities. , it’s absolutely negligent.” Withholding disaster assistance from Californians.
But he also suggested he worked as closely with Trump as other Democratic governors in the U.S. during the coronavirus pandemic, taking a more measured approach that Trump has laid out. Newsom and Trump maintained a friendly relationship behind the scenes during the president-elect’s first term, but that appears to have since dissolved.
Newsom has forcefully pushed back against right-wing attacks on social media following the social media fires in recent days, launching a website on Saturday to actively debunk misinformation about the fires. The site refutes Fox News’ claims that California has cut firefighting budgets and denied allegations in social media posts about the state’s mismanagement of forest land.
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