Newsom changes tone on Trump from campaign rhetoric with federal wildfire recovery funds at stake

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California has long been a leading adversary, and target, of President Donald Trump.

But the governor of the nation’s most populous state, one of the Democratic Party’s leaders in the resistance against the second Trump administration and a potential White House contender in 2028, is leaving politics aside as he feverishly works to secure more federal assistance for people and businesses devastated by last month’s deadly wildfires in metropolitan Los Angeles.

“Thank you, President Trump, for coming to our communities to see this firsthand and meeting with me today to continue our joint efforts to support people impacted,” Newsom said in a statement on Wednesday evening after his huddle with the president at the White House.

In a video posted on social medial, the governor said, “So, here at the White House. Just finished a meeting with President Trump. Had a very successful day up on Capitol Hill as well, meeting in a bipartisan manner with Republican and Democratic leaders about disaster aid and disaster recovery for people impacted by the fires in Southern California.”

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Newsom described his meetings with Trump and members of Congress as “the spirit of collaboration and cooperation … defined.”

The governor’s trip was his first to Washington, D.C., since Trump took over in the White House and is part of his effort to secure additional federal funding to aid in wildfire recovery from the destructive blazes that killed 29 people, destroyed over 12,000 homes and forced tens of thousands to evacuate.

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Late last month, the governor approved $2.5 billion for fire recovery work, which he hopes will be reimbursed by the federal government. 

And the state will likely need much more help from the federal government because the bill to cover rebuilding costs is expected to reach into the tens of billions of dollars.

Newsom, after his meeting with Trump and his crisscrossing of Capitol Hill, emphasized that “we continue to cut red tape to speed up recovery and cleanup efforts as well as ensure rebuilding efforts are swift. We’re working across the aisle, as we always have, to ensure survivors have the resources and support they need.”

Relations between Newsom and Trump haven’t always been so harmonious.

Their animosity dates back to before Trump was elected president the first time in 2016, when Newsom was California’s lieutenant governor.

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And while they did seek common ground at times during Trump’s first term in the White House, the verbal fireworks resumed over the past two years as Newsom served as a top surrogate on the campaign trail for former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced Biden as the Democrats’ 2024 standard-bearer last summer. 

Newsom regularly criticized Trump, and the former and future president handily returned the favor, treating Newsom and heavily blue California as a political punching bag.

After Trump’s convincing election victory over Harris in November, Newsom moved to “Trump-proof” his heavily blue state. 

“He is using the term ‘Trump-Proof’ as a way of stopping all of the GREAT things that can be done to ‘Make California Great Again,’ but I just overwhelmingly won the Election,” Trump responded.

But Newsom followed through, and earlier this week, California lawmakers approved $25 million in legal funding proposed by the Democratic governor to challenge actions by the Trump administration. And the legislature also allocated another $25 million for legal groups to defend undocumented immigrants facing possible deportation by new Trump administration efforts.

President Donald Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom walk to speak to reporters after the president arrived on Air Force One at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles Jan. 24, 2025. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)

After the outbreak of the fires early last month, Trump repeatedly criticized Newsom’s handling of the crisis. He has accused the governor of mismanaging forestry and water policy and, pointing to intense backlash over a perceived lack of preparation, called on Newsom to step down.

“Gavin Newscum should resign. This is all his fault!!!” Trump charged in a social media post Jan. 8, repeating a derogatory name he often labels the governor.

Trump also placed blame for the deadly wildfires on Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, another Democrat, and the policies approved by state lawmakers. In an executive order issued last month, he described management of the state’s land and water resources as “disastrous.”

Newsom pushed back. Disputing Trump, the governor noted that reservoirs in the southern part of California were full when the fires first sparked, and he has argued that no amount of water could tackle fires fueled by winds of up to 100 miles per hour.

Newsom also claimed Trump spread “hurricane-force winds of mis- and disinformation.”

But when Trump arrived in Los Angeles late last month to survey the first damage — just four days after his inauguration as president — the governor greeted him at the airport.

“Thank you first for being here. It means a great deal to all of us,” Newsom told Trump as he greeted the president upon his arrival in Los Angeles last month. “We’re going to need your support. We’re going to need your help.” 

The president declared that “we’re looking to get something completed. And the way you get it completed is to work together.”

Ahead of his stop in Los Angeles, Trump had threatened to withhold wildfire aid until certain stipulations were met in California, including changes to water policy and requiring an ID to vote.

President Donald Trump talks with California Gov. Gavin Newsom after arriving on Air Force One at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles Jan. 24, 2025.  (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)

“It wasn’t discussed, and I hope we can move beyond that,” Newsom said Thursday when asked in a CNN interview about any conditions for federal aid Trump may have demanded.

“Some of the conditions that were being bandied about just seemed to be, for me, a little bit of noise, a little bit political. At the end of the day, we’re all in this together.”

Newsom has also stepped back in recent weeks in pushing back against Trump’s zingers.

Following Trump’s orders, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last week opened two dams in Central California, letting roughly 2.2 billion gallons of water flow out of reservoirs.

Trump celebrated the move in posts on Truth Social Friday and Sunday, declaring, “the water is flowing in California,” and adding the water was “heading to farmers throughout the State, and to Los Angeles.”

But water experts argued that the newly released water won’t flow to Los Angeles, and it is being wasted by being released during California’s normally wet winter season.

Newsom, apparently aiming to rebuild the working relationship he had with Trump during the president’s first term in the White House, didn’t raise any objections to the water release.

“For Newsom, it’s not just the last disaster, it’s the next one. Because when you are governor of California, you know in the not too distant future there will be more wildfires, or floods or earthquakes, and he’s going to need help from the federal government,” Jack Pitney, a veteran California-based political scientist at Claremont McKenna College, emphasized.

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Pitney argued that “whatever [Newsom] thinks about Trump, he needs the president’s help.”

But looking ahead, he noted that Newsom is “termed out in two years. So, once he’s no longer governor, he can be as partisan and anti-Trump as he wants. But, for now, that has to be on hold.”