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The president said that the damage from two devastating wildfires will get fixed as he arrived in LA to survey the damage.
LOS ANGELES (CN) — President Donald Trump and California Governor Gavin Newsom temporarily halted their vitriolic war of words as the president arrived in Los Angeles on Friday afternoon to tour the fire-ravaged neighborhoods of the city.
Newsom, who Trump typically has referred to as “Newscum,” greeted the president warmly as he arrived at LAX, and Trump said he appreciated the governor coming out to meet him.
“Tremendous numbers of lives have been affected, a lot of real estate has been affected” Trump said at a brief press conference on the tarmac. “Nobody has probably seen anything like this almost since World War II.”
He added: “We’re going to get it fixed.”
Trump’s remarks were considerable more toned-down than those he made earlier in the day when he visited North Carolina to tour damage from Hurricane Helene that caused catastrophic in the southeastern U.S. last September. There he suggested he might eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
In North Carolina, the president also suggested that California had “turned off” millions of gallons of water from the Northwest Pacific region and even Canada, purportedly to protect endangered species.
“And in the meantime, you don’t have water in the hydrants,” Trump said earlier in the day. “You don’t have water in the sprinkler systems. It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.”
The two massive wildfires that tore through LA earlier this month have caused an estimated $250 billion in economic damage, and cleaning up the devastated neighborhoods and rebuilding thousands of destroyed homes will likely take many years.
The Palisades Fire destroyed the upscale residential neighborhood of Pacific Palisades on LA’s west side and was 68% contained as of Wednesday morning. The fire has scorched 23,448 acres and destroyed more than 6,600 structures. At least 11 people have died in the fire.
East of downtown LA, the Eaton Fire tore through the community of Altadena at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains. The Eaton Fire has burned 14,000 acres and was 91% contained, according to Cal Fire. Seventeen people died in the fire and over 9,000 structures have been destroyed.
“Thank you for being here,” Newsom told Trump at their meeting at the airport. “It means a great deal for all of us.
“We’re going to need your support. We’re going to need your help. You were there for us during Covid — I won’t forget that, and I have all the expectation that we’ll work together.”
Newsom signed a pair of bills Thursday providing $2.5 billion in funding for Los Angeles wildfire recovery, just hours after the Legislature sent the legislation to his desk. Both the Assembly and state Senate suspended legislative rules to quickly pass the bills, both of which had support across the aisle.
The $2.5 billion will go toward to emergency protective measures, evacuations, sheltering for survivors, debris removal and cleanup, post-fire hazard assessments — such as flash flooding and debris flows — traffic control, and other necessary emergency response activities.
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