California Governor Gavin Newsom (right) inspects the Pacific Palisades downtown business district as the Palisades Fire continues to burn in Los Angeles, California, on January 8, 2025.
Eric Thayer | Getty Images
California Gov. Gavin Newsom blasted President-elect Donald Trump’s response to the California wildfires in an interview taped on Saturday for NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” saying: “I think misinformation and disinformation is harmful to any of us. None of it is beneficial or helpful.
Newsom appeared to be referring to Trump’s Truth Society posts since the fire broke out on Tuesday, slamming Newsom, President Joe Biden and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
In one post, the president-elect baselessly claimed that Newsom blocked a measure that would have allowed water to flow from Northern California to Southern California.
“Governor Gavin Newscum refuses to sign a water restoration declaration put before him that would allow millions of gallons of water (from excess rain and snowmelt from the north) to flow into many areas of California every day, Including areas that are currently burning in an almost apocalyptic way,” Trump wroteusing insulting epithets against Newsom.
Trump added in that article that Newsom “wants to protect an essentially worthless smelt by reducing water (which doesn’t work!)” and that “he should be held accountable.”
“We’re going to have another month of responding to Donald Trump’s insults,” Newsom told NBC News’ Jacob Soboroff. “I’m very familiar with them. Every one of them that he disagrees with. Elected officials are very familiar with them.”
He added that Trump “is somehow linking delta lava to this fire, which is inexcusable because it’s inaccurate. And it’s incomprehensible to anyone who understands the state’s water policy.” .
In another post, Trump wrote, “No water in the fire hydrants, no money from FEMA. This is what Joe Biden left me. Thanks Joe!” and appeared to lie, as he did last year After several hurricanes, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was depleted of funding.
Destructive wildfires in the greater Los Angeles area have killed at least 16 people.
Friday, Newsom Wrote a letter to Trump Invite him to come to his state to visit the site of destruction.
“I invite you to come to California again to meet with Americans affected by the fires, to see this disaster firsthand, and to join me and others in thanking the heroic firefighters and first responders who are risking their lives,” the governor wrote. .
Newsom told Soboroff on Saturday that he had not yet received a response to the letter.
He added that he was concerned the president-elect might follow through on his threat to withhold disaster aid from the state after taking office.
Newsom quotes Trump Past efforts to block federal disaster aid from a country with a leader at odds with him.
“He did it in Utah. He did it in Michigan, he did it in Puerto Rico. He did it in California in 2018, long before I was governor,” Newsom said.
“So he’s been doing this for a number of years. It transcends states, by the way, including Georgia, which he’s also threatened. So that’s his style. We take it seriously enough that in the past it’s been taken A little more time (to get federal aid),” the governor added.
