President-elect Donald Trump will likely travel to California next week to see the aftermath of devastating wildfires in the greater Los Angeles area, he told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” in a phone interview Saturday. He told host Kristen Welker.
“I’ll probably be sworn in this weekend,” President Trump said just two days before he was scheduled to be sworn in for a second term.
“Actually, I was planning to go yesterday as well, but I thought it would be better if I went as president. I think it would be a little more appropriate,” the president-elect added.
President Trump’s planned visit comes after days of wildfires across Southern California, destroying homes and businesses and forcing residents to evacuate.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) went to see the destruction last week as President Trump escalated a series of attacks on social media against Newsom, President Joe Biden and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. He invited President Trump to come to the state.
On the first day of major destruction, Trump blasted Newsom on TruthSocial, baselessly claiming that the governor had blocked a plan proposed during his first term to transfer water from Northern California to Southern California.
“Governor Gavin Newscome will allow millions of gallons of water from excess rain and snowmelt from the north to flow daily into many areas of California, including areas currently on fire. , refused to sign the Water Restoration Declaration that was put before him, in a virtually apocalyptic manner,” President Trump wrote, using a derogatory nickname for Newsom.
In the post, President Trump said that Newsom “wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called smelt by reducing the amount of water he gave them (it didn’t work!)” and that “he is responsible for this.” It’s there,” he added.
In another post, Trump wrote, “No water in the hydrants, no money in FEMA. This is what Joe Biden leaves me with. Thank you Joe!” He appears to be leaning into false conspiracy theories about the Federal Emergency Management Agency that have been spread by Trump and other Republicans.
In a post on TruthSocial later in the week, President Trump went so far as to blame the wildfire destruction on the “gross incompetence of Gavin Newskum and Karen Bass.”
Last week, Newsom told Trump in an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that it would take “another month” to “react to Donald Trump’s insults.”
“I know them very well. All the elected officials with whom he disagrees know them very well,” he added.
President Trump is “somehow linking Delta smelt to these fires, which is inexcusable because it is inaccurate,” Newsom added, “and is incomprehensible to those who understand the state’s water policy.” Ta.
The governor also said he believes the wildfires will be one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history.
“I think it’s just the cost associated with it in terms of scale and scope,” Newsom said.
Now, the weekend before his second inauguration, President Trump said he had not spoken directly to Newsom since the wildfires broke out.
Asked if he intended to include disaster relief in California on his list of priorities on Day 1, President Trump said: “We will. No, we will look at it from many perspectives. We will. I intend to do so.” It would require water to be released from the north into lower California. ”
The debate over releasing water from the northern part of the state to the southern part first erupted in 2020 between President Trump and California officials.
Then-President Trump signed a presidential memorandum aimed at diverting water from northern California to farmland in the central and southern parts of the state.
“(It’s) going to give you a lot of water, a lot of dams, a lot of things. You’ll be able to cultivate your own land, you’ll be able to do things that you never thought possible before. “It will be,” President Trump said at an event announcing the memorandum in California in 2020.
At the time, Newsom and then-California Attorney General Xavier Becerra publicly condemned Trump’s plan, with Becerra calling it a “detrimental attack on the state’s critical ecosystem and environment.”
