California Governor urges Trump not to politicise natural disaster
Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, said he is “not interested in politicising a natural disaster” and wants the president-elect, Donald Trump, to “visit and understand the magnitude” of the wildfires.
“I would like people to focus on a collaboration between the executive in Washington DC and in the state of California to help rebuild a community that’s been completely ravaged,” Newsom said on X.
The Los Angeles fires, which claimed at least 11 lives and destroyed more than 10,000 homes and businesses, have significantly intensified the feud between the incoming president and the California Democrat. Trump has ridiculed the governor’s handling of the crisis, called for sweeping policy changes on water management, and used the fires to again portray the state as failing.
During Trump’s first term, he demanded policy concessions from California in exchange for federal disaster relief funding. This approach was fresh in Governor Newsom’s mind as he successfully appealed to the Biden administration for a disaster declaration this week. In response, Biden pledged that the federal government would cover all fire management and debris removal costs for the next six months.
Separately, scores of residents have returned to their still smouldering neighbourhoods even as the threat of new fires persisted and the nation’s second-largest city remained unsettled.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people remained under evacuation orders, and the fires have consumed about 56 square miles (145 square kilometres).
On Friday afternoon, firefighters made progress for the first time on the Eaton Fire north of Pasadena, which has destroyed more than 7,000 structures. Besides, officials announced that most evacuation orders for the area had been lifted.
