CNN
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Donald Trump has spent weeks preparing for a shock-and-awe start to his second term.
But the new president will return to the Oval Office next week with the threat of wildfires raging in Los Angeles threatening to distract attention from the big moment.
Trump’s team is determined to learn the lessons of his turbulent first term and get off to a fast start, especially since the Republican monopoly on Washington power may last only two years. Rapid border reform, huge tax cuts and new incentives for oil exploration are already on track. And the new White House is also expected to announce a number of early executive orders, with a signing ceremony scheduled for Monday in the Oval Office before Trump wears a black tie for his third presidential ball. .
But even if most of the blazes are extinguished by Inauguration Day, the sudden prospect of finding billions of dollars in federal aid to rebuild miles of charred homes is a big deal for the federal government. That threatens to complicate the already tasked task of passing President Trump’s agenda with a small Republican House majority determined to cut the budget. Expenses.
President Trump’s rush to blame the disaster on Democrats and progressive environmental policies comes as President Trump rushes to blame Democrats and progressive environmental policies in his first weeks in office to fight for federal funding for one of the healthiest states. It shows President Trump’s antipathy.
But presidents cannot choose their own crises.
So President Trump will visit Los Angeles in the first days of his administration and meet with two leaders already accused of starting the conflagration, California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. We are considering this. Officials told CNN on Monday.
Such a visit would allow Mr. Trump to try to establish a “problem-solving” persona to break through what progressives say is their disastrous governance.
And the harrowing sight of the damage may give the new president a keen sense of the enormity of the situation facing tens of thousands of people who no longer have a place to live.
President Trump told Newsmax on Monday that the destruction in Los Angeles was “much worse than what you see on TV.” But the prospect of a major real estate construction project appears to have been appealing to the billionaire real estate mogul.
“We’re going to work with Los Angeles. You know, I’m already wearing my developer cap,” Trump said.
Presidential visits to disaster areas can provide solace and free up government power. The new president’s empathetic visit may make a strong impression on some Americans and dispel negative perceptions of his first term. But such photo ops also demonstrate the commander-in-chief’s responsibility for a complex and expensive relief project.
“The president intends to go to California at some point,” a Trump adviser told CNN on Monday, adding that the exact date “has not yet been determined.” Nothing has been finalized. ”
The Los Angeles wildfire disaster will be a personal challenge for Mr. Trump and a test of his openness to act as president of all Americans.
During his final term in the White House, Mr. Trump occasionally hinted at the idea of breaking with established practice and withholding disaster aid in order to generate political influence over Democratic jurisdictions. He seemed deeply upset about sending hurricane aid to U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico, for example, and accused “incompetent politicians” of spending “ridiculously high sums” to pay off other obligations.
The president-elect’s leadership was particularly exposed when the emergency response collided with his own political interests. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, his early commitment to mitigation efforts frayed as it became clear that the crisis and its economic fallout could hurt his 2020 re-election prospects. .
Even before California’s recent wildfire crisis, President Trump had threatened to leave the state ablaze unless Newsom met his demands for changes in how water is managed. “If he doesn’t sign these papers, we won’t give him the money to put out all the fires. And if we don’t give him the money to put out the fires, he won’t. We’re going to have a problem,” President Trump said in California in September.
President Trump’s supporters may see this as a legitimate use of presidential power to force California to change environmental policies that the incoming administration views as key to the cause of the wildfires.
But trying to use the federal government’s financial power to force cities and states to change their policies can lead to political chaos.
The president-elect could prove to be far-sighted if an investigation finds that local authorities failed to adequately prepare for the scale of the fires. There may also be lessons to be learned about building districts in areas with high fire risk. However, it is too early to say for sure what caused the disaster. And President Trump’s approach has been to cite conspiracy theories and misinformation in angry social media posts, clearly for personal political gain.
Post-disaster surveys are also likely to show that weeks of drought and high winds combined to dry out vegetation and form the perfect crater for a firestorm. Such situations are becoming more likely due to man-made increases in global temperatures, but President Trump denies this phenomenon. For example, on Monday, the president-elect reposted on social media a photo of a burning area submitted by a follower, which included the slogan: It’s the Democratic Party. ”
And President Trump’s claims that progressive efforts to protect the environment and save the rare delta smelt caused water shortages and hampered firefighters’ efforts have been debunked by fact checkers. Exposed. The decision to withhold aid to tens of thousands of people, many of whom are homeless, based on such falsehoods could be controversial and damage the president’s widespread appeals early in his term.
California officials, already under tremendous political pressure due to the president-elect’s unpredictable nature, know that a personal feud with Trump could backfire. , a balancing act will be required.
Mr. Newsom’s relationship with Mr. Trump has been rocky, given his own potential presidential ambitions and California as a Democratic stronghold with the power to challenge the president-elect’s policies on everything from the environment to reproductive rights. The state’s position deteriorated further.
In a letter to Trump on Friday, Newsom recalled how they worked together to help victims of previous wildfires. But he also said, “We must not politicize human tragedy or spread disinformation from the sidelines. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have been forced to flee their homes and fear for their futures. We all have the right to work to put their interests first and ensure a speedy recovery and rebuilding.”
While the fires are still raging in Los Angeles, the political fallout is now reaching Washington.
Passing President Trump’s agenda while increasing the government’s borrowing authority was already certain to strain the House majority, its thinnest in decades.
The idea of adding billions of dollars to California was weighing heavily on Republican leaders Monday.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has raised the possibility of using disaster aid to force change or punish California’s Democratic leaders. “It appears that state and local leaders have failed in their duties in many respects,” he told CNN’s Manu Raju.
“I think 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 hasn’t talked to any members of Congress on the issue. He added that he had not yet had a chance to discuss it. He also said there was “some discussion” about tying aid to California to raising the debt ceiling. This step must be taken within months to avoid an economic crisis caused by a US debt default. Such a move could be aimed at forcing Democratic lawmakers to vote on raising the government’s borrowing powers, as many Republicans could deprive Johnson of his majority on the issue. .
Still, withholding disaster aid is a sensitive issue in Congress, as each member knows his or her district could suddenly find themselves in need.
Democrats were outraged by Johnson’s comments.
“This is wrong. Once we start this, we will never finish,” Florida Rep. Jared Moskowitz wrote to X. “If Democrats take back the House, they will make aid conditional on Florida and Texas. Disaster aid must be bipartisan. If Democrats try to do this, I will fight them.” “The Speaker can find many other ways to hold people accountable,” he wrote.
New York Congressman Jerrold Nadler also offered a glimpse of the political battle ahead, writing to X that such funds “should never be conditioned or used as a bargaining chip.” He added: “Using this tragedy for political purposes and making it harder for people to get federal aid? That’s embarrassing.”
