President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will be in Southern California Friday to view the recent wildfire devastation and discuss relief efforts amid a war of words with Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The president is expected to land at Los Angeles International Airport Friday afternoon before heading to the Palisades Fire burn area to take an aerial and walking tour of the damage. Trump is also expected to visit a fire station and participate in a roundtable discussion.
The visit comes amid threats from Trump to withhold federal relief funding unless the state changes its water management policies. The president has blamed state and local officials for mismanaging water resources and firefighting efforts.
“I will say that Los Angeles has changed everything because a lot of money is going to be necessary for Los Angeles … I don’t think we should give California anything until they let water flow…” Trump said during a recent interview on Fox News.
AccuWeather estimates more than $250 billion in damages and economic loss.
Gov. Newsom says Trump’s criticisms are false. “Maybe the president just doesn’t know that there’s not a spigot that can be turned to solve all the water problems that he alleges exist, that don’t exist, as it relates to the state water system here in Southern California,” he said.
Trump and other conservatives have also repeated decades-old allegations that poor forest management driven by environmentalists has led to larger, more destructive wildfires.
Newsom has said that land management is not completely under his control and that 57% of the state’s land is federally managed while only 3% is state managed.
At least 27 people died in the fires, which erupted on Jan. 7 when hurricane-strength Santa Ana winds swept across Southern California, which hasn’t seen significant rain in nearly a year.
Questions remain about the causes of both fires and whether budget cuts to the Los Angeles Fire Department had an impact on its response.
Newsom has said he’s willing to meet Trump on the tarmac when he lands at LAX but it’s unclear if that will happen.
