In a phone interview with NBC News Meet the Press anchor Kristen Welker on Saturday, President-elect Donald Trump stated that he is expected to visit California the next week to observe the effects of the deadly wildfires in greater Los Angeles.
Just two days before his second-term inauguration, Trump stated, “I will be, probably, at the end of the week.”
The president-elect continued, “I was actually planning to go yesterday, but I felt it would be better if I went as president.” I suppose it’s a bit more fitting.
Trump’s intended travel coincides with the more than week-long flames that have destroyed homes and businesses and forced many to flee Southern California.
Last week, as Trump unleashed a growing barrage of assaults on Newsom, President Joe Biden, and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on social media, Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom of California urged Trump to visit his state to see the devastation.
Trump attacked Newsom on Truth Social on the first significant day of devastation, falsely accusing the governor of blocking a plan he had put up during his first administration to transfer water from Northern California to Southern California.
Using a derogatory nickname for Newsom, Trump wrote that Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration that would have permitted millions of gallons of water from excess rain and snow melt from the North to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way.
Trump said in that statement that Newsom’s attempt to save a smelt, a species that is practically useless, by reducing its water intake was unsuccessful. and he has the responsibility for this.
Trump said, “No money in FEMA, no water in the fire hydrants,” in another post. JOE BIDEN IS LEAVING ME WITH THIS. JOE, THANK YOU! seeming to support a fictitious conspiracy theory concerning the Federal Emergency Management Agency that he and other Republicans disseminated following several hurricanes in the South last year.
Later in the week, Trump even accused Karen Bass and Gavin Newscum of gross incompetence for the devastation caused by the wildfire in a Truth Social post.
In an interview with NBC News Meet the Press last week, Newsom responded to Trump’s comments, stating that it will take another month to address them.
I know them rather well. He went on to say that every elected politician with whom he disagrees is well acquainted with them.
Trump’s attempt to link the delta smelt to this fire is unacceptable due of its inaccuracy. Furthermore, according to Newsom, it is nonsensical to anyone who is familiar with the state’s water policy.
The governor added that he thinks the wildfires will rank among the worst natural catastrophes in American history.
According to Newsom, it will be in terms of the scope and magnitude, as well as the expenses involved.
Trump said he hasn’t had a direct conversation with Newsom since the wildfires started the weekend before his second inauguration.
Trump responded, “We’re going to, no, we’re going to [look] at it from a lot of standpoints,” when asked if he intended to include disaster relief for California in his list of priorities for Day 1. We will demand that water be released into the lower regions of California from the north.
In 2020, Trump and California officials began debating the release of water from the northern to the southern regions of the state.
A presidential memorandum that intended to redirect water from Northern California to farms in the state’s center and south was signed by then-President Trump.
You will get a lot of water, a lot of dam, and a lot of everything else. At a ceremony in 2020 to announce the memo in California, Trump stated, “You’ll be able to farm your land, and you’ll be able to do things you never thought possible.”
Both Newsom and Xavier Becerra, the attorney general of California at the time, publicly condemned Trump’s plan at the time, describing it as a destructive assault on the environment and vital ecosystems of our state.