After days of sniping back and forth with President-elect Donald Trump over California’s handling of the fires ravaging Los Angeles, Gov. Gavin Newsom today invited the incoming Republican president to visit the state and survey the damage.
The Democratic governor signed his public overture “with respect and an open hand.” But he also included praise for outgoing President Joe Biden and implicit criticism of Trump’s early handling of the tragedy — reflecting the tricky balance between cooperation and controlling the narrative that Newsom is trying to maintain as he seeks help from his biggest political nemesis to address one of the worst disasters in California history.
“In the spirit of this great country, we must not politicize human tragedy or spread disinformation from the sidelines,” Newsom wrote in a letter also shared on social media. “Hundreds of thousands of Americans — displaced from their homes and fearful for the future — deserve to see all of us working in their best interests to ensure a fast recovery and rebuild.”
Since Tuesday, when a series of fires driven by hurricane-force winds began breaking out across the Los Angeles region, Trump has repeatedly blasted Newsom and other California leaders online for mismanaging the state’s water and called on “Newscum” to resign. Frustrations that some fire hydrants ran dry as crews battled a massive blaze in the Pacific Palisades — a failure that Newsom on Friday ordered the state to investigate — has underpinned much of the criticism.
The hostile rhetoric has raised fears that Trump may follow through on earlier threats to withhold disaster aid from California unless the state overhauls its water policy by allowing more supply to flow south to Central Valley farmers and Southern California. That would make it substantially more costly for the state to recover from the Los Angeles fires, which are already estimated to have caused economic losses of more than $50 billion.
The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to an inquiry about Newsom’s invitation to visit.
Because Biden has already issued a major disaster declaration for the Los Angeles fires, unlocking critical aid for the response and recovery, Trump could try to punish California by reversing the order.
That would be an unprecedented move that would almost certainly be challenged in court, said Daniel Farber, a law professor at UC Berkeley.
Federal law gives sitting presidents the power to issue a disaster declaration but does not spell out if they can retract one, Farber said. “I don’t think that ever occurred to Congress that that would be an issue.” He noted that the statute’s purpose was to dispense disaster aid “orderly and efficiently” — so a president reversing a previous administration’s declaration “would really undermine the whole premise.”
“I think there are no backseats,” Farber said.
But Trump could still slow-walk how the Federal Emergency Management Agency distributed funds. That’s something that Trump did in his first term, after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017. A 2021 federal report found that the Trump administration delayed $20 billion in disaster aid to the island.
“He could definitely let FEMA know to drag their feet,” he said. “You say they are dragging their feet deliberately for political reasons, and they just say, ‘No, we are doing the best we can. There’s a lot of paperwork.’”
Newsom: ‘Sickens me to my core’
Newsom and his administration have pushed back with increasing vehemence against accusations from Trump and other prominent Republicans that a lack of available water, poor vegetation management and bureaucratic incompetence are to blame for Los Angeles fires.
On a video call with Biden on Friday morning, Newsom lamented the “hurricane-force winds of mis- and disinformation, lies, that people want to divide this country,” which he said were damaging California’s response efforts.
“We’ve got to deal with this misinformation,” he said. “It infects real people that are out there, people I meet every single day.”
A few hours later, in an email to political supporters, Newsom explicitly called out Trump and his allies for their “politically motivated lies” about the fires, which “sickens me to my core,” he wrote.
His letter to Trump, released not long after, was far softer. Newsom invoked their joint visits to Paradise and Malibu in 2018 to tour the devastation from the deadly Camp and Woolsey fires.
“As you prepare to assume the presidency once more, I invite you to come to California again — to meet with the Americans affected by these fires, see the devastation firsthand, and join me and others in thanking the heroic firefighters and first responders who are putting their lives on the line,” Newsom wrote.
But Bob Salladay, a spokesperson for the governor, said the invitation was not an attempt to reset their relationship, nor would Newsom soft-pedal his criticism about Trump’s behavior.
“It’s not a binary choice,” Salladay said in a text message. “We will have to engage with the Trump administration — he’s going to be the president.”
“As for the letter, we would like to see the President-elect out here to show some compassion and interest in the people of California and Los Angeles,” he added. “Nothing more than that. His response will speak volumes.”
State Sen. Roger Niello, a Roseville Republican, suggested that the California GOP could help Newsom navigate the complicated dynamics with the Trump administration — although he said the governor has yet to ask.
“Though we’re in the minority, we do have a number of Republican legislators who have relationships with Republicans in Washington, D.C.,” Niello said. “To the extent that there are any challenges there, to the extent that we have a common approach toward things, we could assist.”
CalMatters reporter Mikhail Zinshteyn contributed to this report.