Trump Hints at Possible Los Angeles Trip Next Week

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to visit California next week to assess the consequences of the catastrophic wildfires in the greater Los Angeles area, as he informed NBC News’ “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker during a phone conversation on Saturday.

“I will likely be there by the end of the week,” Trump stated, just two days prior to his second-term inauguration.

“I initially intended to go, in fact, yesterday,” the president-elect remarked, “but I figured it would be more fitting if I went as president. It seems a bit more proper, I believe.”

Trump’s scheduled visit occurs as wildfires have been devastating Southern California for over a week, annihilating homes and businesses while forcing residents to evacuate.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, a member of the Democratic Party, invited Trump to his state last week to survey the damage while Trump was ramping up a series of criticisms against Newsom, President Joe Biden, and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on social media.

On the first significant day of destruction, Trump condemned Newsom on Truth Social, unfoundedly alleging that the governor had obstructed a plan Trump had suggested during his initial term to redirect water from Northern California to the south.

“Governor Gavin Newscum declined to sign the water restoration declaration presented to him that would have permitted millions of gallons of water, from excess rainfall and snowmelt from the North, to flow daily into numerous areas of California, including regions currently experiencing almost apocalyptic conditions,” Trump stated, employing a derogatory moniker for Newsom.

In that post, Trump further mentioned that Newsom “wished to safeguard an essentially unimportant fish called a smelt, by providing it with less water (which didn’t prove effective!)” and “he is the root cause of this.”

In another post, Trump asserted, “NO WATER IN THE FIRE HYDRANTS, NO FUNDS IN FEMA. THIS IS WHAT JOE BIDEN IS HANDING ME. THANKS JOE!” seemingly referring to a misleading conspiracy theory regarding the Federal Emergency Management Agency that he and other Republicans propagated last year following several hurricanes in the South.

In a Truth Social post later that week, Trump even attributed the wildfire damage to “Gross incompetence by Gavin Newscum and Karen Bass.”

Newsom replied to Trump last week during an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” stating that “responding to Donald Trump’s slanders” would require “another month.”

“I am well acquainted with them. Every elected official he disagrees with is quite familiar with them,” he added.

Trump is “somehow linking the delta smelt to this fire, which is inexcusable because it’s incorrect. Additionally, it’s incomprehensible to anyone who understands water policy in the state,” Newsom stated.

The governor also expressed his belief that the wildfires will become one of the most significant natural disasters in U.S. history.

“I believe it will be in terms of just the financial implications, considering the magnitude and scope,” Newsom remarked.

As he approached the weekend before his second inauguration, Trump mentioned he had not communicated with Newsom directly since the wildfires began.

When asked if he intended to incorporate disaster relief for California into his Day 1 priorities, Trump replied, “We’re going to assess it from various angles. We will be insisting that water be released from the northern regions to the southern parts of California.”

The contention regarding the transfer of water from northern to southern parts of the state first arose between Trump and Californian officials in 2020.

Then-President Trump issued a presidential memorandum aiming to redirect water from Northern California to agricultural areas in the central and southern parts of the state.

“[It’s] going to provide a substantial amount of water, a lot of dam resources, everything necessary. You’ll be able to cultivate your land, and you’ll achieve things you never thought were feasible,” Trump asserted at an event  announcing the memo in California in 2020.

At that moment, Newsom and former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra publicly rejected Trump’s initiative, with Becerra denouncing it as a “destructive assault on our state’s crucial ecosystems and environment.”