Newsom-Trump War of words still raging as president arrives in California to survey wildfires
When President Donald Trump Landing in California on Friday to survey the devastating wildfires that have ravaged Metropolitan Los Angeles this month, the state’s Democratic governor will be among the officials greeting him.
But Government by Gavin Newsom shows the uninvited.
“I’m looking forward to being there on the tarmac to thank the president, greet him and make sure he has all the resources he needs to have a successful briefing,” Newsom told reporters ahead of Trump’s stop in Los Angeles.
Since the fires, which killed nearly 30 people and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes, broke out earlier this month, Trump has repeatedly criticized Newsom’s handling of the immense crisis. Accusing the governor of mismanaging forestry and water policy and pointing to the intense backlash due to a perceived lack of preparation, he called on Newsom to step down.
The uninvited Newsom says he will be on the tarmac to greet Trump briefly
People look at smoke and flames from a wildfire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood on January 7, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Tiffany Rose/Getty Images)
“Gavin Newscum should resign. This is all he is guilty of!!!” Trump made the accusation in a post on social media on January 8, for repeating a derogatory name that often refers to the governor.
And in his first Oval Office interview since returning to power in the White House, Trump said Fox News’ Sean Hannity This week, “this fire was just raging, and then it would catch on to another area, another area, another area.”
“It’s been a week and a half — and I’ve never seen anything like it. We look so weak,” Trump claimed in an appearance on Fox News “” Hannity,“While he pointed to his repeated claim that the main reason the plans went awry was because firefighters had no access to water.
Trump and some top Republicans in Congress have moved toward placing conditions on the continuation of the massive federal wildfire Help in California to force policy changes.
Newsom signed a $2.5 billion government aid package on Thursday. But California will need a lot more help from the federal government.
California Governor Gavin Newsom (right) tours the Pacific Palisades business district as the Palisades Fire continues to burn on January 8, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Eric Thayer)
“I don’t think we should give California away until they let the water fall from the north to the south,” Trump said in his Fox News interview.
Newsom, the governor of the nation’s most populous state, one of the leaders of the Democratic Party’s resistance to the returning president and a potential candidate for the White House in 2028, pushed back as the two larger-than-life politicians traded fire.
The governor noted that reservoirs in southern California were full when the fires first broke out, and argued that no amount of water could fight the blazes, which were fueled by winds of up to 100 miles per hour.
Newsom also charged that Trump had spread “hurricane winds through misinformation and disinformation.
U.S. President Donald Trump leaves for the Air Force as he leaves for North Carolina at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, Jan. 24, 2025. (Leah Millis/Reuters)
And in a letter to Congress last week, Newsom emphasized that “our long national history of responding to natural disasters, no matter where they occur, has always been Americans helping Americans, completely stopping it.”
Povenje is far from the first time Newsom and Trump have targeted each other. Their animosity dates back to before Trump was first elected president in 2016, when Newsom was California’s lieutenant governor.
The verbal fireworks have continued over the past two years, as Newsom has been a top surrogate on the campaign trail for former President Biden and then former Vice President Kamala Harris, who last summer replaced Biden as the Democratic standard-bearer in 2024.
After Trump’s landslide election victory over Harris in November, Newsom moved to Trump’s heavily blue state.
“He’s using the term ‘Trump-proof’ as a way to stop all the great things that can be done to make California great again, ‘but I just won the election by a landslide,'” Trump replied.
While pushing back against Trump’s attacks amid the fire, Newsom also knows he needs to work with the president.
President Donald Trump (Center) looks on with California Gov. Jerry Brown (R) and Lt. Col. Gavin News as they survey the damage from the wildfires in Paradise, California on November 17, 2018. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
Newsom, who two weeks ago invited Trump to come to California to survey the damage, said in a statement Monday after inauguration ceremony“I look forward to President Trump’s visit to Los Angeles and his mobilizing the full weight of the federal government to help our fellow Americans recover and rebuild.”
He emphasized “finding common ground and working toward common goals” with the Trump administration.
“In the face of one of the worst natural disasters in American history, this moment underscores the critical need for partnership, a shared commitment to the facts, and mutual respect — values that enable civil discourse, effective governance, and meaningful action,” the governor said.
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California-based political scientist Jack Pitney at Claremont McKenna College noted that “this is a very difficult balance” for Newsom.
“As governor of California, he has to work with the president to get federal aid to the state. As a national political figure, he feels pressure to attack Trump. It’s hard to do both at the same time,” Pitney told Fox News.
