Newsom Invites Trump to CA to See Wildfire Damage

With wildfires burning out of control in California, Donald Trump is calling out Democrats for their failed policies.  

Now California Governor Gavin Newsom is inviting Trump to California to see the damage firsthand rather than continuing to fight this battle in the media. 

Trump Claims 

While there are definitely facts rooted in Trump’s claims, he has once again gotten some of the finer details wrong, which has enabled Newsom and the media to hang the misinformation label on Trump’s statements, so I wanted to address some of those claims.  Trump stated that Newsom “refused to sign the water restoration declaration,” but there is no such document. From what I could find, there was a proposal in 2019 to redirect water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to Central Valley farms and Southern California urban areas. That proposal was defeated when activist groups litigated it.  

It is a fact that the hydrants ran dry, but it was not, technically, because the water supply ran out, as Trump had claimed. The hydrant systems in some parts of the city are not set up to fight wildfires as they are in other areas. They are meant to battle house fires, so when multiple hydrants are all being drained this quickly, the water tanks supplying the water cannot keep up the water pressure, which is what happened here.  

Mark Pestrella, director of the L.A. County Department of Public Works, explained, "The municipal water systems that service our homes and businesses continue to work effectively. However, they're not designed to fight wildfires. A firefight with multiple fire hydrants, drawing water from the system for several hours is unsustainable. This is a known fact.” 

There are some other issues that need to be addressed, however, such as not sending runoff to a reservoir, controlled burns, and maintaining the forest floor. This falls on both the state and Biden administration via the Forest Service.  

FEMA Funding 

Donald Trump had also claimed that FEMA was out of money and could not help those who needed assistance, but that was not necessarily true.  

This always seems to be a point of contention regardless of who is in office, with the misinformation on this being spread by the very people who are responsible for the agency’s funding.  

FEMA has a base funding, but as emergency declarations are made, more funding is added. For all intents and purposes, FEMA has a blank check as long as Congress is cooperating with the administration.  

For example, with all of the hurricane damage from Hurricane Helene, as well as several other events, current funding for FEMA was, in fact, running dry, but the administration has already secured another $29 billion that was added in December, and if more money is needed, Biden or Trump will ask for it, and it will be approved by Congress.  

Let’s Chat 

Right now, we have Donald Trump and Republicans attacking Gavin Newsom and we have Democrats and Newsom firing back. This really serves no purpose when people are losing their homes, so Newsom has invited Trump to California to bury the hatchet, so to speak.  

I don’t want this to sound like I am letting Newsom off the hook because I clearly hold him and this administration accountable for much of the damage being done. As I stated before, while these fires would likely have happened regardless, the policies put in place by Democrats have surely made this situation worse.  

Newsom is trying to do some damage control, writing to Trump, “As you prepare to assume the presidency once more, I invite you to come to California again — to meet with the Americans affected by these fires, see the devastation firsthand, and join me and others in thanking the heroic firefighters and first responders who are putting their lives on the line.” 

If I were Trump, I would pounce all over this, and head to California to see the areas and talk to victims. I hate to put it in these terms, but this is an amazing opportunity for Trump to reach out to people who normally never entertain the idea of listening to what he has to say. Perhaps this sets the stage for Trump to pass legislation that would require certain amounts of readiness and preparedness that would make a difference in the future of wildfires in this country.