Trump threatens to withhold wildfire aid ahead of Los Angeles visit

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Trump threatens to withhold wildfire aid ahead of Los Angeles visit

Washington — President Trump is threatening to withhold federal disaster aid for the Los Angeles area if California doesn’t change the way it manages water in the state. 

Mr. Trump said he plans to head to Southern California on Friday to visit the communities affected by the fire. In an interview that aired Wednesday on Fox News, Mr. Trump threatened to potentially withhold federal funding, blasting California’s water management and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. The president told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he doesn’t think the federal government should give California “anything” until it sends more water down to the southern part of the state. 

“I don’t think we should give California anything until they let water flow down,” the president told Fox News on Wednesday. 

Some experts have suggested that desalination is the reason California has to allow some water to flow out to the Pacific Ocean, and the matter is more complicated than the president says.  

Fires across the L.A. area have killed at least 28 people, destroyed more than 15,000 structures and charred some 63 square miles. The Palisades and Eaton wildfires continue to burn, and the Hughes Fire in Castaic, which broke out Wednesday, has put more than 50,000 people under evacuation orders and warnings in the northern Los Angeles County community, authorities say. 

Mr. Trump told NBC he wanted to visit sooner than this week, but “thought it would be better if I went as president.” Few details have been released about his trip so far, and Newsom’s team said Wednesday that they only know about the trip from “sources,” according to The Associated Press. 

Newsom invited Mr. Trump to visit in the aftermath of the fires, and said this week he looks forward to the president’s visit. Mr. Trump, who has called him “Gavin Newscum” on social media, has long been critical of Newsom’s approach to forest and brush management in California.  

“Governor Gavin Newscum should immediately go to Northern California and open up the water main, and let the water flow into his dry, starving, burning State, instead of having it go out into the Pacific Ocean,”

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recently on his Truth Social platform. “It ought to be done right now, NO MORE EXCUSES FROM THIS INCOMPETENT GOVERNOR. IT’S ALREADY FAR TOO LATE!”

Newsom has also criticized Mr. Trump, suggesting he is pushing disinformation about the cause and handling of the fires. 

This won’t be the first time Mr. Trump will visit California and work with Newsom in the aftermath of a fire. 

The president visited Paradise, California, in 2018, after flames burned that Northern California community to the ground. 

Kathryn Watson

Kathryn Watson is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital, based in Washington, D.C.

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