President Donald Trump suggested on Wednesday that he might withhold federal disaster funding for California and Los Angeles County’s deadly January wildfires due to his ongoing feud with Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Trump was asked outside the White House if “recent dust-ups” with Newsom over immigration raids and subsequent protests would impact California’s request for $40 billion in wildfire aid.
“Yeah, maybe,” Trump said. “Hatred is never a good thing in politics. When you don’t like somebody, you don’t respect somebody, it’s hard for that person to get money if you’re on top.”
The aid is meant to help cover the response to the wildfires in January, including the Palisades and Eaton fires, which killed at least 30 people and destroyed some 17,000 structures.
Newsom responded to Trump’s comments in a social media post Wednesday.
“Sucking up to the president should not be a requirement for him to do the right thing for the American people,” the governor wrote. “These are families who’ve lost their homes, their belongings — the irreplaceable pieces of a life built over decades, reduced to ash.”
This isn’t the first time Trump has suggested he would withhold disaster aid because of his dislike of Newsom. In September, he made similar statements while speaking about a slow-moving landslide threatening entire neighborhoods in Palos Verdes.
The Trump administration’s ongoing immigration enforcement raids across Southern California — and the federal response to ensuing protests and unrest — have drawn the ire of Democrats in California, led by Newsom.
Federal officials have said that the immigration enforcement operations would continue in the Southland, despite the protests and the pleas of local Democrats.
On Tuesday, an appellate panel heard arguments but made no ruling on whether Trump or Newsom will control the state’s National Guard. The case stems from California’s legal challenge to Trump’s decision to deploy the Guard over the objections of Newsom. A San Francisco federal judge last week ruled the move was illegal and unconstitutional, and the Trump administration appealed.
Trump ordered the Guard deployed to Los Angeles shortly after the violence broke out in the first weekend of protests, later deploying U.S. Marines to the area as well. On Tuesday, the Department of Defense said the 49th Military Police Brigade would serve alongside the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team and two U.S. Marine units under a central command, totaling around 4,100 soldiers.
