When President Donald Trump lands 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 Gov. Gavin Newsom is showing up uninvited.
“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 on the eve of Trump’s stop in Los Angeles.
Since the fires, which have 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. He has accused the governor of mismanaging forestry and water policy, and pointing to intense backlash over a perceived lack of preparation, he has called on Newsom to step down.
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People watch the smoke and flames from the wildfires in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood on Jan. 7, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Tiffany Rose/Getty Images)
“Gavin Newscum should resign. This is all his fault!!!” Trump charged in a social media post on Jan. 8, as he repeated a derogatory name he often labels the governor.
And in his first Oval Office interview since returning to power in the White House, Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity this week, “This fire was just raging, and then it would catch to another area, another area, another area.”
“It took a week and a half — and I’ve never seen anything like it. We look so weak,” Trump argued in the appearance on Fox News’ “Hannity,” as he pointed towards his repeated claim that a main reason the blazes raged was because firefighters didn’t have access to water.
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Trump and some top Republicans in Congress have pushed toward placing conditions on continuing the massive federal wildfire aid to California in order to force policy changes.
Newsom on Thursday signed a $2.5 billion state relief package. But California will need much more help from the federal government.
California Governor Gavin Newsom (right) tours the downtown business district of Pacific Palisades 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 anything until they let water flow down 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 Democratic Party’s leaders in the resistance against the returning president, and a potential White House contender in 2028, has pushed back, as the two larger-than-life politicians trade fire.
The governor has noted that reservoirs in the southern part of California were full when the fires first sparked, and has argued that no amount of water could tackle fires fueled by winds of up to 100 miles per hour.
Newsom has also charged Trump has spread “hurricane-force winds of mis-and-disinformation.
U.S. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One as he departs for North Carolina at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, January 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, full stop.”
The wildfires are far from the first time Newsom and Trump have taken aim at each other. Their animosity dates back to before Trump was elected president the first time in 2016, when Newsom was California’s lieutenant governor.
The verbal fireworks continued over the past two years, as Newsom served as a top surrogate on the campaign trail for former President Biden and then former Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced Biden as the Democrats’ 2024 standard-bearer last summer.
Following Trump’s convincing election victory over Harris in November, Newsom moved to Trump-proof his heavily blue state.
“He is using the term ‘Trump-Proof’ as a way of stopping all of the GREAT things that can be done to ‘Make California Great Again,’ but I just overwhelmingly won the Election,” Trump responded.
While pushing back against Trump’s attacks amid the wildfires, Newsom also knows he needs to work with the president.
President Donald Trump (center) looks on with California Gov. Jerry Brown (right) and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, as they view damage from 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 on Monday following the inauguration ceremony, “I look forward to President Trump’s visit to Los Angeles and his mobilization of the full weight of the federal government to help our fellow Americans recover and rebuild.”
He emphasized “finding common ground and striving toward shared goals” with the Trump administration.
“In the face of one of the worst natural disasters in America’s history, this moment underscores the critical need for partnership, a shared commitment to facts, and mutual respect – values that enable civil discourse, effective governance, and meaningful action,” the governor said.
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Veteran California-based political scientist Jack Pitney at Claremont McKenna College noted that “this is a very difficult balance” for Newsom.
“As a governor of California, he needs to work with the president to get federal aid for the state. As a national political figure, he feels pressure to attack Trump. It’s hard to do both of those at the same time,” Pitney told Fox News.
Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in New Hampshire.
