Throughout his inaugural tackle, President Donald Trump criticized California’s response to the Los Angeles wildfires as he’s scheduled to go to the Golden State to survey the injury on Friday.
Trump has been vocal of his disapproval of the way in which California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass have dealt with the fireplace response, accusing them of “gross incompetence,” even suggesting that Newsom resign as governor.
In his first televised sit-down interview with Fox Information host Sean Hannity since returning to the White Home, Trump ripped Newsom for his management main as much as the lethal wildfires and his protection of sanctuary cities.
“If you actually polled the people, they don’t want sanctuary cities,” Trump informed Hannity. “But Gavin Newsom does, and these radical left politicians do. I watched Gavin Newsom try to answer that question. He looked like an idiot. He was unable to answer.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and President-elect Trump have clashed on numerous points, together with immigration. (Getty | AP)
Trump claimed the dearth of forest administration and Newsom’s reported refusal to permit stormwater from the north to circulation down freely to Southern California helped contribute to one of the crucial damaging wildfires within the state’s historical past.
Izzy Gardon, director of communications for Newsom’s workplace, beforehand combated criticism of the governor’s wildfire dealing with in a press release to Fox Information Digital.
“The Governor is focused on protecting people, not playing politics, and making sure firefighters have all the resources they need,” Gardon mentioned.
On Thursday, Newsom signed off on a reduction bundle the place the state will spend $2.5 billion to assist with the Los Angeles wildfires restoration.
“This is about distilling a sense of hopefulness,” Newsom mentioned throughout a information convention.
Newsom’s administration added that the state expects to be reimbursed by the federal authorities for the catastrophe reduction funding.
It isn’t identified if Trump plans to satisfy with Newsom throughout his go to Friday.
“We are glad President Trump accepted the governor’s invitation to come to Los Angeles,” Newsom’s workplace informed Fox Information Digital. “We are glad he took our invitation to heart.”
Trump’s criticism of California and Newsom’s management within the state spans years, with the president singling out forest administration, sanctuary cities, homelessness, crime and spending as contributing components to the state’s situation.
Mel Gibson calls out ‘monumental mismanagement’ of LA fires by California authorities after shedding his dwelling
Trump isn’t the one particular person ripping Newsom for what is going on in California.
Within the aftermath of the lethal Los Angeles wildfires, actor Mel Gibson, together with quite a few different elite residents, accused Newsom and elected officers of mishandling the prevention and response to the catastrophe.
“As a citizen here, Newsom and [Los Angeles Mayor Karen] Bass, they want us to trust them to reimagine the city, our city, and how they think it should be. I mean, look at what they’ve done so far to this town,” Gibson mentioned in a earlier unique interview with Fox Information contributor Raymond Arroyo.
“You got nothing but rampant crime, acute homelessness, high taxes, mismanagement of water, firefighters, defunding the department, and we’re supposed to trust them with millions of dollars to sort of remake where we live? It’s our city, it’s the city of the people, and they have another plan. … There’s still people from the Woolsey Fire still living in trailers. … When have you ever seen the government ‘build back better’? … At the very least, it’s insensitive.”
The Palisades Fireplace ravages a neighborhood amid excessive winds within the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Picture/Ethan Swope)
The large and lethal fires broke out within the Los Angeles space on Jan. 7, forcing tens of 1000’s of residents to flee for security as their properties and companies had been destroyed.
Gibson additionally informed Arroyo the elected officers’ mismanagement is another excuse why People proceed to flee the town.
Different celebrities, together with Justine Bateman, known as out Newsom and different Los Angeles officers to be faraway from workplace due to the fires.
The governor’s workplace beforehand shared a letter addressing water hydrants operating out of water, stating that “while overall water supply in Southern California is not an issue, water mobility in the initial response was an issue.”
“That is why @CAGovernor Newsom has ordered a full, independent review of LADWP. This cannot happen again,” the put up learn.
California GOP leaders name for accountability after state can’t account for $24B spent on homeless disaster
Previous to the Los Angeles wildfire disaster, California management had been being scrutinized for not with the ability to clarify what occurred to $24 billion meant to curb the homelessness problem.
California GOP leaders are calling for extra accountability after the state auditor discovered that regardless of roughly $24 billion spent on homeless and housing packages in the course of the 2018-2023 fiscal years, the issue didn’t enhance in lots of cities.
The report additionally uncovered that the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH), which is chargeable for coordinating companies and allocating assets for homelessness packages, stopped monitoring whether or not the packages had been working in 2021.
Gov. Gavin Newsom; folks at a homeless encampment in California (Getty Pictures)
The audit discovered it additionally failed to gather and consider consequence knowledge for these packages as a result of lack of a constant methodology.
California Meeting Republican Chief James Gallagher laid the blame on the Newsom administration.
“This is standard Gavin Newsom – make a splashy announcement, waste a bunch of taxpayer money, and completely fail to deliver,” Gallagher mentioned in a press release to Fox Information Digital.
“Californians are tired of the homeless crisis, and they’re even more tired of Gavin’s excuses. We need results – period, full stop.”
Regardless of the audit’s findings, Cal ICH mentioned it has made enhancements in knowledge assortment after AB 977 took impact on Jan. 1, 2023.
In a earlier assertion, Newsom’s workplace mentioned, “The State of California’s doing more than ever. We’ll continue to do more. But this will be my final words on this: If we don’t see demonstrable results, I’ll start to redirect money. I’m not interested in status quo any longer. And that will start in January with the January budget. We’ve been providing the support to local government that embraces those efforts and focuses on a sense of urgency — and we’re going to double down. If local government is not interested, we’ll redirect the money to parts of the state, cities and counties that are.”
Biden admin sends billions to California’s over-budget, behind-schedule ‘prepare to nowhere’
Including to the record of missteps made by California management: the decades-delayed and over-budget “train to nowhere.”
California Republicans have reported that the state’s long-awaited high-speed rail community is sort of $100 billion over finances and a long time not on time.
Former Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who left workplace in early 2011, first launched the high-speed rail system challenge, and his Democrat successor, Gov. Jerry Brown, continued the challenge.
Shortly after taking workplace in 2019, Newsom acknowledged in his first State of the State tackle that he would scale the challenge down from its unique formidable plan, saying it would price an excessive amount of and take too lengthy to remain the course.
Months later, the Trump administration penned a scathing letter to California, informing the state that it was rescinding the multibillion-dollar grant awarded for the challenge beneath the Obama administration.
BIDEN ADMIN SENDS BILLIONS TO CALIFORNIA’S OVER-BUDGET, BEHIND-SCHEDULE ‘TRAIN TO NOWHERE’
Ongoing building of the California bullet prepare challenge is proven in Corcoran, left, and Hanford. (Getty Pictures)
Nonetheless, in June 2021, the Biden administration mentioned it might reverse the choice and restore the funding. The Biden administration then despatched California greater than $3 billion in federal taxpayer funds in 2023.
In December 2024, a number of outstanding California Democrats known as on the U.S. Division of Transportation to approve a grant software for $536 million in federal funds to maneuver ahead with the challenge.
If accredited, the federal funds will probably be boosted by $134 million in state cash from California’s “cap & trade” program, in response to the Sacramento Bee.
The challenge was initially deliberate as a $33 billion challenge consisting of 1,955 miles of railway connecting San Francisco to Los Angeles. Since then, the associated fee has ballooned to $113 billion and the challenge’s scope has been dramatically scaled all the way down to a 171-mile railway connecting Bakersfield, Fresno and Merced that is not anticipated to be operational till 2030.
General, if the challenge is accomplished in 2030, it is going to have taken a decade longer than anticipated whereas costing $80 billion extra and being 91% smaller than initially deliberate. Due to its repeated shortfalls, the challenge has been dubbed by critics because the “train to nowhere.”
Newsom’s workplace didn’t instantly present a response.
Proposition 36 overwhelmingly passes in California, reversing some Soros-backed soft-on-crime insurance policies
Through the presidential election, Trump went after his opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris, on the decades-old felony justice coverage crippling California.
Harris was not truly concerned with pushing Prop 47 and didn’t take a stance on the problem all through the marketing campaign.
The poll measure overwhelmingly handed within the deep-blue state and rolled again a few of California’s most controversial soft-on-crime insurance policies.
Proposition 36, the Homelessness, Drug Habit and Theft Discount Act, sought to undo parts of Proposition 47 by growing penalties for some crimes, together with classifying the possession of fentanyl as a felony.
Enterprise and police in California (Getty Pictures)
When Proposition 47 handed in 2014, it downgraded most thefts from felonies to misdemeanors if the quantity stolen was beneath $950, “unless the defendant had prior convictions of murder, rape, certain sex offenses, or certain gun crimes.”
Proposition 47 additionally reclassified some felony drug offenses as misdemeanors.
The initiative has been blamed by regulation enforcement officers and companies for the rise in theft and smash-and-grabs that plagued California within the years because the COVID-19 pandemic.
Newsom remained against the hassle, saying it “takes us back to the 1980s, mass incarceration.”
He additionally touted that California’s $950 threshold is the “10th lowest, meaning tougher than states like Texas ($2,500) or Alabama ($1,500) or Mississippi ($1,000).” His workplace famous that “Prop 47 did not change that threshold and neither did Prop 36.”
California unemployment fraud scandal grows to $11 billion, with one other $20 billion beneath scrutiny
California Labor Secretary Julie Su tried to place the blame on Trump’s first administration for “failing to provide guidance to foil sophisticated unemployment schemes” after state officers reported that at the least $11.4 billion in unemployment advantages paid in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic concerned fraud.
Officers added that one other $20 billion in potential losses was additionally being investigated.
In January 2021, Su mentioned that of the $114 billion the state paid in unemployment claims in the course of the coronavirus pandemic, 10%, or $11.4 billion, concerned fraud and one other 17% was beneath investigation.
CALIFORNIA UNEMPLOYMENT FRAUD SCANDAL GROWS TO $11 BILLION, WITH ANOTHER $20 BILLION UNDER SCRUTINY
Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks throughout a press convention in Fontana, Calif., on Feb. 17, 2022. (Watchara Phomicinda/MediaNews Group/Press-Enterprise by way of Getty Pictures)
“There is no sugarcoating the reality,” Su mentioned in a earlier press convention. “California has not had sufficient security measures in place to prevent this level of fraud, and criminals took advantage of the situation.”
Practically all of the fraudulent claims had been paid by the federally supported Pandemic Unemployment Help program. This system was accredited by Congress to supply unemployment help to those that normally wouldn’t be eligible, corresponding to unbiased contractors.
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Officers added that this system’s broad eligibility necessities made it a straightforward goal for criminals, together with from Russia and Nigeria. In December, 21,000 prisoners scored greater than $400 million from the state, together with 100 prisoners on loss of life row.
“It should be no surprise that EDD was overwhelmed, just like the rest of the nation’s unemployment agencies,” Su mentioned. “As millions of Californians applied for help, international and national criminal rings were at work behind the scenes working relentlessly to steal unemployment benefits using sophisticated methods of identity theft.”
The governor’s workplace didn’t instantly present a response.
Fox Information Digital’s Bradford Betz, Stephanie Giang-Paunon, Morgan Phillips, Thomas Catenacci, Jamie Joseph and Charlie Creitz contributed to this report.
Stepheny Worth is author for Fox Information Digital and Fox Enterprise. Story suggestions and concepts may be despatched to stepheny.value@fox.com
