Newsom to Meet With Trump as He Seeks Federal Aid for Fire Relief

Politics|Newsom Heads to Washington to Meet With Trump

• Feb. 4, 2025, 5:50 p.m. ET

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California headed to Washington on Tuesday to meet with President Trump and seek disaster aid for Los Angeles communities destroyed in last month’s firestorms, his latest attempt to mend ties with the White House as other Democrats have grown increasingly alarmed by the new administration.

Mr. Newsom and Mr. Trump, who have sparred publicly but also worked closely together during the president’s first term, were scheduled to meet at the White House on Wednesday, according to a person with knowledge of the meeting.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly threatened to withhold disaster aid if California does not change how it manages its water, a perennially charged issue in an arid state where officials have to balance the needs of agriculture, ecosystems and thirsty cities. The president has also said that he wanted California to enact a voter identification law in order to obtain federal funding that would help Los Angeles recover from the wildfires.

Last month, wind-swept wildfires in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles and Altadena, Calif., killed 29 people and left thousands of homes in ashes. Mr. Trump almost immediately blamed Mr. Newsom and other Democratic leaders in California for the destruction and referred to the governor as “Newscum.” It is expected to cost tens of billions of dollars to rebuild the damaged communities.

Mr. Newsom is an ambitious Democrat who spent much of 2024 blasting Mr. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, as he helped campaign for the Democratic ticket, but he has toned down his wrath since the fires devastated the Los Angeles region. He greeted Mr. Trump on the tarmac in Los Angeles on Jan. 24, and the two promised to work together to advance the region’s recovery.

The day before the president’s visit, Mr. Newsom signed legislation that approved $2.5 billion for the recovery work, which he said he hoped would be reimbursed by the federal government.

On Monday, Democratic lawmakers in California passed a pair of bills to spend $25 million on litigation against the federal government and $25 million to offer legal aid to undocumented immigrants.

Mr. Newsom in November called for swift legislative action to buttress the state from Mr. Trump’s conservative agenda, but the governor has said little about the proposals this year, taking a more cooperative approach to dealing with the president. He left the state on Tuesday without signing the bills, and he cannot take action on them until he returns to California later this week.