Six months after L.A. fires, Newsom calls for federal aid while criticizing the Trump administration

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday marked the six-month anniversary of the Eaton and Palisades fires with a call for billions in federal funding to support the state’s wildfire recovery, and offered a blistering critique of the Trump administration’s most recent immigration raids in MacArthur Park in Los Angeles.

So far, the GOP-led U.S. House of Representatives has made no progress on a request from Newsom, made in late February, for $40 billion in additional wildfire funding that would go toward rebuilding schools, churches, homes and hospitals.

Newsom said that fire funding is a nonpartisan issue, and that all U.S. states are “in this together.” He said that other states have outstanding requests for federal aid after their own natural disasters, and that the Republican-controlled House will “absolutely” come through. He urged federal lawmakers to do the same for Texas after last week’s deadly floods.

“South Carolina, I think they should get every penny that they need,” Newsom said. “North Carolina, they should get every penny that they need. ... I expect that we will figure out a path, a bipartisan path, to support the people of the United States of America, and those include the 40 million Americans residing in California.”

But once again he found himself in the conflicting position of criticizing Republicans while asking them for disaster aid.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass had been scheduled to appear at the event, held at Pasadena City College, but did not attend after heavily armed federal immigration agents on horseback descended on MacArthur Park.

Newsom said the immigration raids were proof of President Trump’s “polluted heart,” a shift from the weeks after the fires when he tried to strike a more conciliatory tone as he pushed for more federal aid from Congress and the White House.

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The federal government’s work in Los Angeles County has included a record-breaking debris removal program run by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Newsom said Monday that 9,195 of the 9,873 properties enrolled in the federal government’s debris removal program have been cleared. That figure doesn’t include commercial buildings, which were not included in the Army Corps program, or the nearly 2,000 property owners who chose to hire their own private contractors for debris removal.

Newsom said the clearance was the fastest in California history, surpassing the cleanups that followed the 2018 Camp and Woolsey fires.

The federal government has reimbursed the state and local governments for direct response costs and paid for their own debris cleanup, said Brian Ferguson, a spokesperson for the governor. The federal government has also provided more than $3 billion in individual assistance to homeowners and small-business loans, he said.

Long-term recovery funding, which the federal government typically provides states after disasters, is expected to be determined by Congress after lawmakers return to work in September, Ferguson said.

Reps. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) and Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), who represent Altadena and Pacific Palisades in Congress, said they were continuing to push for the supplemental aid package in Congress with “no strings.” Some Republicans have suggested linking aid to policy decisions in California, including changes to water policy or voter identification laws.

Sherman said California’s $40-billion request could get through the House “as a supplemental that also includes the Texas disaster and other disasters.”

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Newsom and Trump appeared to put aside their political differences in January when the commander in chief traveled to Los Angeles to survey wildfire damage. After embracing on the tarmac at Los Angeles International Airport, the two sparring partners pledged to work together to rebuild the fire-ravaged communities.

Hours before the in-person meeting, the president had threatened to condition any wildfire funding on California agreeing to adopt more stringent voter identification laws. Trump has continued to point the finger at Newsom since the meeting, calling the governor and local officials “incompetent.”

In his final days in the White House, President Biden pledged that the federal government would cover 100% of disaster assistance costs to California for 180 days, and the Trump administration has “honored that commitment,” Newsom said Monday.

But Newsom hasn’t held back sharp critiques of the president’s leadership on other major topics, including immigration, tariffs, and healthcare funding. After discussing the state’s response to the wildfires, Newsom condemned the federal immigration raids on Monday in MacArthur Park as “a disgrace.”

The timing isn’t a coincidence, Newsom said. He said that an estimated 41% of the state’s construction workforce is working without legal status, and that immigration raids could shake a sector that is “foundational” to the state’s recovery.

“They know what they’re doing,” he said. “And then again, they have no idea what they’re doing. Their ignorance is legendary. And the impacts of this will be felt in the recovery — and that’s on them. Donald Trump owns that. He owns the cruelty, he owns the arrogance.”