{"id":84731,"date":"2025-12-07T06:09:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T06:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/84731\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T06:09:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T06:09:19","slug":"white-house-slams-newsom-after-gov-claims-trump-admin-turned-down-la-wildfire-aid-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/84731\/","title":{"rendered":"White House slams Newsom after gov claims Trump admin turned down LA wildfire aid meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

The White House tore into Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom<\/a> on Friday after he claimed the Trump administration refused to meet with him Friday during a visit to Washington aimed at securing more wildfire recovery aid.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More than $7 billion in federal funds have been issued to California since January, when the Palisades and Eaton fires torched thousands of acres of land <\/a>and high-priced homes, but the Golden State governor wants a lot more.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Newsom formally requested an additional $34 billion<\/a> from Congress earlier this week \u2013 down from his initial $40 billion ask<\/a> in February \u2013 and met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to push for the additional funds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump followed by First Lady Melania Trump, shakes hands with California Governor Gavin Newsom upon arrival at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California, on January 24, 2025. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Firefighters work as the Hughes Fire burns on January 22, 2025 in Castaic, California. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Officials with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), however, rebuffed Newsom\u2019s meeting request, according to the governor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, I had productive meetings with leaders on both sides of the aisle who agreed that recovery funding is vital, while federal officials from the Trump administration turned their backs on survivors by refusing to even meet with us,\u201d Newsom said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump\u2019s promise to \u2018take care\u2019 of survivors was clearly a lie,\u201d the governor charged. \u201cHe isn\u2019t here for the people of Los Angeles, just like he isn\u2019t here for everyday Americans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not just disrespectful, it\u2019s a disgrace \u2013 and it\u2019s time for him to wake up and do his job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newsom\u2019s office described the request to meet with FEMA Acting Administrator Karen Evans as \u201croutine,\u201d and the alleged rejection as unprecedented.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

DHS informed Newsom\u2019s team that Evans was \u201cnot able to accommodate a meeting\u201d and offered no alternatives with other Trump administration officials, according to the governor\u2019s office.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gavin Newsom \u2014 seen with Trump at the Paradise fire in 2018 \u2014 claimed the Trump administration refused to meet with him Friday during a visit to Washington aimed at securing more wildfire recovery aid.\u00a0 AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Newsom\u2019s team claimed the Trump administration\u2019s unwillingness to push for more wildfire recovery funds<\/a> for California is \u201cabnormal\u201d and a sharp break from how his predecessors have responded to natural disasters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told The Post that \u201cNewscum has no idea what he\u2019s talking about,\u201d using Trump\u2019s derisive nickname for the Golden State governor.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump\u2019s historic leadership following the LA wildfires led to the fastest hazardous debris removal operation in history,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cThis has played a critical role in helping communities recover from tragedy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when Democrat politicians and bureaucrats said something like this was impossible, President Trump found a solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

A playground burns in a residential neighborhood during the Eaton fire in Pasadena, California on January 7, 2025. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Firefighters watch the flames from the Palisades Fire burning a home during a powerful windstorm on January 8, 2025. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The White House spokeswoman argued that Trump \u201cexpedited\u201d the wildfire recovery process, while Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor\u00a0Karen Bass \u201cmade the disaster worse than it needed to be.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey drained the Santa Ynez Reservoir and failed to prepare to utilize pumps and aqueducts. Then, they slowed the recovery process with permit approvals dragging on despite the President\u2019s tremendous efforts to help the overall process,\u201d Jackson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

FEMA and DHS did not respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who along with Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has been leading an ongoing congressional investigation into the LA fires, noted ahead of Newsom visits that Palisades residents have alleged billions of dollars in past federal support for wildfire preparedness and recovery in California\u00a0 \u201chave been wasted.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI encourage him to publicly share exactly how the state has used the billions in tax dollars it has already received over the past decade that were intended for wildfire preparedness and recovery, and that witnesses on the ground allege were wasted,\u201d Scott said in a statement.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Palisades, California. View from a helicopter of homes destroyed by the wildfire in Pacific Palisades, California. John Chapple for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve heard from survivors of the devastation who lost their homes and livelihoods, and from the families of those who lost their lives. We\u2019ve also heard about the roadblocks and bureaucracy that are still preventing victims from rebuilding their lives nearly a year later,\u201d Scott continued. \u201cAccording to these victims\u2019 testimonies, California has not spent these federal dollars wisely or effectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey deserve answers before California receives more of Americans\u2019 hard-earned tax money.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The White House tore into Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday after he claimed the Trump administration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,3936,1752,536,457,28249,13,3586,2805],"class_list":["post-84731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-california-wildfires","tag-congress","tag-donald-trump","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-la-fires-2025","tag-politics","tag-us-news","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}