CNN — Donald Trump has spent weeks preparing a shock and awe start to his second term.
But the new president will walk back into the Oval Office next week with a crisis over the raging wildfires in Los Angeles threatening to distract attention from his big moment.
Trump’s team is determined to get a fast start after learning the lessons of his chaotic first term, especially since the Republican monopoly on Washington power may only last two years. Swift border reforms, huge tax cuts and new incentives for oil exploration are already on deck. And the new White House, which is also expected to unveil a slew of early executive orders, has scheduled an Oval Office signing ceremony for Monday before Trump dons black tie for a trio of presidential balls.
But even if most of the flames are doused by Inauguration Day, the sudden prospect of finding billions of dollars in federal aid to rebuild miles of charred homes already threatens to complicate the task of passing Trump’s agenda with a tiny GOP House majority determined to cut federal spending.
Trump’s rush to blame Democrats and progressive environmental policies for the catastrophe indicates his antipathy to fighting for federal cash for one of the bluest states in his first weeks in office.
But presidents don’t get to pick and choose their crises.
So, Trump is considering a visit to Los Angeles in the first few days of his administration that would bring him face-to-face with two leaders he’s already accused of causing the conflagration, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, sources told CNN on Monday.
Such a trip would allow Trump to try to establish a “fix-it” persona to cut through what he claims is the calamitous governance of progressives.
And the devastating sight of the damage may bring home to the new president the enormity of the situation facing tens of thousands of people who no longer have anywhere to live.
Trump told Newsmax Monday that the destruction in Los Angeles was “far worse than you even see on television.” But the prospect of a massive real estate construction project did seem to appeal to the billionaire property magnate.
“We’re going to do things with Los Angeles. You know, I’m already putting my developer cap on,” Trump said.
Presidential trips to disaster zones can offer solace and unlock the power of government. An empathetic visit from the new president could create a strong impression and erase some negative perceptions of his first term among some Americans. But such photo-ops also establish a marker of the commander in chief’s responsibility for a complex and costly relief project.
“The president intends to go to California at some point,” a Trump adviser told CNN Monday, adding that the specific timing is “yet to be determined. Nothing has been finalized.”
How Trump’s disaster management failed during his first term
The Los Angeles wildfire catastrophe will also provide a personal test for Trump and his tolerance for acting as the president of all Americans.
During his last spell in the White House, Trump sometimes suggested that he’d break with established practice and withhold disaster aid to create political leverage against Democratic jurisdictions. He appeared to deeply resent sending hurricane aid to the US citizens of Puerto Rico, for instance, accusing “inept politicians” of using “ridiculously high amounts” to pay off other obligations.
The president-elect’s leadership was especially exposed when there was a clash between an emergency response and his own political interests. During the Covid-19 pandemic, his early commitment to mitigation efforts frayed when it became clear that the crisis and its impact on the economy could harm his 2020 reelection prospects.
Even before the latest California wildfire crisis, Trump warned he’d let the state burn unless Newsom fell in with his demands for changes in the way it manages its water. “If he doesn’t sign those papers, we won’t give him money to put out all his fires. And if we don’t give him the money to put out his fires, he’s got problems,” Trump said in California in September.
Trump’s supporters may see this as a legitimate use of presidential power to force California to change environmental policies that the incoming administration regards as key to causing the wildfires.
But attempting to use the power of the federal purse to compel policy changes in cities and states is a recipe for political tumult.
The president-elect could turn out to be prescient if investigations show that local officials did not properly prepare for the scale of the fires. There are also likely to be lessons to be learned about the building of neighborhoods in areas with a high fire risk. But it’s too early to say for sure what caused the disaster. And Trump’s approach has been to cite conspiracy theories and misinformation in his angry social media posts in a clear grasp for personal political gain.
Post-disaster probes are also likely to show that weeks of drought dried out vegetation combined with high winds to create a tinderbox for a perfect fire storm. Such conditions are being made more likely by the man-made warming of global temperatures – a phenomenon Trump denies. The president-elect, for example, reposted a social media photo of a burning neighborhood Monday from a follower that had the slogan: “It’s not climate change. It’s Democrats.”
And Trump’s claims that progressive attempts to preserve the environment and to save a rare fish – the delta smelt – led to water shortages that hampered firefighters has been debunked by fact checkers. Any decision to withhold aid for tens of thousands of people, many of whom have lost their homes, based on such falsehoods would be controversial and could damage his wider appeal early in his presidency.
California leaders face tricky test with Trump
The president-elect’s unpredictable nature will force California officials already under huge political pressure into a balancing act because they know that personal disputes with Trump could be counterproductive.
Newsom has had a rocky relationship with Trump – exacerbated by his own potential presidential ambitions and California’s status as a Democratic bastion with the power to challenge the president-elect’s policies on everything from the environment to reproductive rights.
In a letter to Trump on Friday, Newsom recalled how they’d worked together to help victims of a previous wildfire. But he also warned: “We must not politicize human tragedy or spread disinformation from the sidelines. Hundreds of thousands of Americans — displaced from their homes and fearful for the future – deserve to see all of us working in their best interests to ensure a fast recovery and rebuild.”
Johnson angers Democrats with suggestion of conditioning California aid
While the fires still rage in Los Angeles, their political reverberations are now reaching Washington.
Passing Trump’s agenda while raising the government’s borrowing authority was already certain to strain the smallest House majority in decades.
The idea of adding billions for California was weighing on GOP leaders Monday.
House Speaker Mike Johnson raised the prospect of using disaster aid to enforce change or to exact punishment on Democratic leaders in California. He told CNN’s Manu Raju that “it appears to us that state and local leaders were derelict in their duties in many respects.”
“I think that there should probably be conditions on that aid. That’s my personal view. We’ll see what the consensus is,” the Louisiana Republican said, adding that he hadn’t yet had the chance to discuss the issue with any of his members. He also said that there had been “some discussion” about linking California aid to raising the debt ceiling – a step that must be taken within months to avoid an economic crisis caused by a US debt default. Such a move might be designed to coerce Democrats to vote to raise government borrowing authority since many Republicans may deprive Johnson of a majority on the issue.
Still, withholding disaster aid is a touchy issue in Congress because each lawmaker knows that their district could suddenly find itself in need.
Democrats reacted angrily to Johnson’s remarks.
“This is a Mistake. If you start this, it will never end,” Florida Rep. Jared Moskowitz wrote on X. “When Dems retake the House, they will condition aid to Florida and Texas. Disaster Aid must stay non partisan. I would fight Democrats should they try and do this. The Speaker can find many other ways to hold people accountable,” he wrote.
New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler also offered a glimpse of the political battle ahead, writing on X that such funds “should NEVER be conditioned or used as a bargaining chip—period.” He added: “Using this tragedy for political points, then making it harder for people to get federal assistance? That’s shameful.”
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CNN
