Newsom concerned Trump will try to withhold California fire aid
“He’s done it in Utah. He’s done it in Michigan, did it in Puerto Rico. He did it to California back before I was even governor, in 2018, until he found out folks in Orange County voted for him and he decided to give them money.”
(The Hill) - California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) raised concerns about the possibility of President-elect Trump withholding federal disaster aid to the state amid the ongoing wildfires in the greater Los Angeles area.
“He’s done it in Utah. He’s done it in Michigan, did it in Puerto Rico. He did it to California back before I was even governor, in 2018, until he found out folks in Orange County voted for him and he decided to give them money,” Newsom said in an interview with NBC News that aired Sunday on “Meet the Press.”
“So he’s been at this for years and years and years. It transcends the states, including, by the way, Georgia, he threatened similarly. So that’s his style. And we take it seriously to the extent that in the past it’s taken a little bit more time [to get federal aid],” he continued.
“I’ve been pretty expressive about that in the context of someone threatening our first responders in terms of supporting the immediacy of their needs.”
Newsom’s comments come as the president-elect has fiercely criticized the governor’s handling of the wildfires and even called on him to resign last week. Trump has also criticized President Biden’s handling of the fires from the federal perspective.
Last week Trump accused Newsom of not signing a “water restoration declaration,” which Trump claimed resulted in the redirection of water resources in an effort to protect the endangered Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta's smelt fish. Newsom’s office has said the declaration does not exist, calling Trump’s claim “pure fiction.”
"I don't know what he's referring to when he talks about the Delta smelt in reservoirs. The reservoirs are completely full, the state reservoirs here in Southern California," Newsom told NBC News in the same interview.
Last year on the campaign trail, Trump threatened to withhold federal aid to California if it did not reinstate his policies from his first administration when he signed a memorandum that redirected water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta toward farmers in the southern part of the state.
“The water coming here is dead. And Gavin Newsom is going to sign those papers, and if he doesn't sign those papers, we won't give him money to put out all his fires, and we don't give him the money to put out his fires. He's got problems," Trump said in September.
But Trump and his allies have signaled they would be willing to work with California amid the devastating wildfires.
Trump told ABC News that even though Newsom “has not done a good job,” he would still work with him.
"With that being said, I got along well with him — when he was governor, we worked together very well, and we would work together," Trump said. "I guess it looks like we're going to be the one having to rebuild it."
Vice President-elect JD Vance echoed Trump’s remarks in an interview on Fox News Sunday.
“No, look, President Trump cares about all Americans, right? He is the president for all Americans,” Vance said. “And I think that he intends to have FEMA and other federal responses much, much better and much more clued into what’s going on there on the ground.”
Newsom invited Trump to visit California in a letter last week. Vance said in the same interview that Trump “would love to visit California.”
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