Cali Rep. Chu says ‘fires have no political ties’ after Trump outlines conditions for federal aid
U.S. Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., said she does not believe conditions should be placed on federal aid for the wildfires raging through Southern California, after President Donald Trump suggested that he wanted fire aid to be conditional.
The district Chu represents includes Altadena and north Pasadena, which were hit by the deadly Eaton Fire.
“Never in the history of America has there been a requirement for disaster relief,” Chu told Inside California Politics.
“I know I voted for disaster relief in red states and I voted for blue states, she continued. “I never thought about whether they were Republicans or Democrats. And let me say, wildfires have nothing to do with politics. They don’t have a political party.”
TRUMP MET CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS, FIREFIGHTERS AND LAW ENFORCEMENT TO SEE FIRST-HAND FIRE DAMAGE
Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif. during the Eaton Fire press conference on January 9, 2025 at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California. (Getty Images)
It comes after Trump said Friday that two conditions must be met in California before the federal government offers disaster relief. He said he wants lawmakers to approve the voter ID bill and that water must flow throughout the state.
“I want to see two things in Los Angeles. Voter ID, so people have a chance to vote, and I want to see the water released and come down to Los Angeles and the whole state,” Trump told reporters in North Carolina as he toured recovery efforts from of hurricanes in that country. “Those are two things. After that, I’ll be the greatest president California has ever seen.”
Trump visited Los Angeles later on Friday to see him damage from forest fires and meet with local officials and residents.
US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump tour the area affected by the fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California on January 24, 2025. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Chu said she wants Trump to tell working-class victims in her district that he will only see aid to deal with the devastation if there are conditions.
“I want him to see how these everyday Americans are horribly destroyed and I also want him to hear their voices,” Chu said. “I want him to look, in fact, in the eyes of the victim and say that he would not provide help if there were no conditions.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, responded to Trump’s comments about conditional aid. The governor’s office said several other states — including some won by Trump — generally do not require identification at the polls and that Californians must provide identification when they register to vote. Newsom’s office also said the state was pumping as much water as it could under Trump’s first-term policy.
LOS ANGELES AGENCY REVEALS ECONOMIC IMPACT ESTIMATES OF DEADLY FOREST FIRES AS INFERNO STILL RAGES
A view of homes destroyed by the Eaton Fire on January 9, 2025 in Altadena, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
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“Conditioning aid on American citizens is wrong,” Newsom’s office said on X.
Republicans in Congress have proposed tying wildfire aid to an increase in the debt ceiling or changes to California’s wildfire mitigation policy, but Democrats have opposed making federal aid conditional. Southern California.
