It was not even a year ago when California Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Donald Trump — political foes who don’t shy from disparaging one another — cast aside their usual insults and, in a rare moment of unity, came together to confront the aftermath of the Southern California wildfires.
Although Newsom hadn’t officially been invited, he was there to greet Trump on the tarmac at LAX in January 2024 when the president paid a visit to Los Angeles after the fires. The two shook hands and appeared cordial.
And despite Trump having suggested that federal aid to help with post-fire recovery be tied to conditions — possibly voter ID or the state’s water or forestry management practices — Newsom made a point of crediting Trump for the times he said the president had supported Californians.
“You were there for us during COVID; I don’t forget that. And I have all the expectations that we’re going to work together to get this speedy recovery,” the governor said to Trump at the time.
The president, in turn, acknowledged Newsom’s role as the leader of the Golden State while talking about a “permanent fix” to prevent future wildfire catastrophes.
“We’re looking to get something completed, and the way you get it completed is to work together,” Trump said. “He’s the governor of this state, and we’re going to get it completed.”
That moment of cordiality was short-lived.
Just months later, the two were back to hurling insults at each other, their disagreements over federal immigration raids spilling over onto the national stage.
Soon after, Newsom began trolling Trump with social media posts.
And as the nation’s redistricting war heated up, Newsom emerged as the face of the Democratic Party’s pushback to a mid-decade gerrymandering attempt by red states. Those efforts in GOP-led states are at the behest of Trump, who wants to redraw congressional maps to ensure that Republicans retain control of the U.S. House of Representatives after the 2026 midterm elections.
Might the political dynamics between Newsom and Trump, or more broadly, between Democrats and Republicans in an often-divided Congress, jeopardize future federal aid to help Southern Californians recover from one of the largest and most expensive disasters in U.S. history?
Shortly after the wildfires, Newsom asked the federal government — where the executive branch and both houses of Congress are controlled by Republicans — for tens of billions of dollars in additional aid to help Southern California recover.
More than 10 months later, he’s still waiting for a firm commitment.
Newsom goes to Washington
California had, as of mid-December, received about $5.7 billion in FEMA aid, money which the governor’s office said had been approved by President Joe Biden before he left office in January. That money has largely gone toward debris removal and to help businesses.
But Newsom is seeking roughly $34 billion more. The governor has said additional funding is needed to rebuild roads, schools and water systems, develop housing, and reopen small businesses now that the debris removal is complete.
After months of requesting more money, Newsom traveled to Washington, D.C., in early December, where he met with congressional leaders from both parties to re-up his request for more aid.
But according to Newsom, Trump administration officials refused to meet with him.
“I had productive meetings with leaders on both sides of the aisle who agreed that recovery funding is vital, while federal officials from the Trump administration turned their backs on survivors by refusing to even meet with us,” Newsom said that day. “President Trump’s promise to ‘take care’ of survivors was clearly a lie.”
In response to a follow-up inquiry, the governor’s office told the Southern California News Group that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency “declined a routine meeting request” from Newsom to meet with a representative while he was in D.C.
“We were informed by DHS … that the acting administrator of FEMA is ‘not able to accommodate a meeting request at this time,’ and were offered no alternatives with DHS or FEMA officials,” according to the governor’s office.”
“We’ve never seen a meeting like this rejected,” Newsom’s office said.
A White House official referred questions about any potential meeting with Newsom to FEMA, but neither DHS nor FEMA responded to a request for comment about what happened.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson, meanwhile, said Trump’s “historic leadership” after the fires “led to the fastest hazardous debris removal operation in history.”
“This has played a critical role in helping communities recover from tragedy,” Jackson said in a statement. “And when Democrat politicians and bureaucrats said something like this was impossible, President Trump found a solution.”
The temperature in Congress
Some members of California’s congressional delegation have expressed guarded optimism that additional federal aid for California will be forthcoming.
Although Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson have said they want strings attached to funding for California, not all GOP lawmakers are on board with conditioning aid, they said.
“If you ask Donald Trump, if you ask Speaker Johnson, to this day, they’ll probably argue for conditions on aid. But there are a number of Republican members of Congress, in both chambers, that have disagreed with that suggestion from the very beginning,” said U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, the senior senator from California.
Among the GOP legislators who support giving disaster aid without conditions, Padilla said, are U.S. Sens. Rick Scott of Florida, a state often battered by hurricanes, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, whose state is still recovering from last year’s Hurricane Helene. In September, the governor of North Carolina asked Congress for $13.5 billion in additional recovery aid.
The Carolinas have also been hit with multiple wildfires this year.
A spokesperson for Tillis confirmed the senator’s support for giving disaster aid to California without conditions. Scott’s office did not respond to a message inquiring about his position.
Members of Southern California’s congressional delegation, meanwhile, have largely agreed that disaster aid shouldn’t come with strings.
And in March, the entire California congressional delegation signed a bipartisan letter addressed to leaders of both parties in the U.S. Senate and House that called for federal aid.
Helping lead that effort was Rep. Ken Calvert, a Republican from Riverside County who sits on the House Appropriations Committee. Although Calvert opposes conditions on aid, he’s in favor of having separate discussions about potential policy reforms to prevent future disasters.
“Californians who lost their home or suffered damage due to the wildfires are entitled to federal disaster aid, just like those who were impacted by the floods in Texas or North Carolina,” Calvert said. But even as the federal government provides aid, he said, “we should look at policies that may help communities avoid or better respond to wildfires so that this devastation does not happen again.”
“I stand ready to work with my Appropriations Committee colleagues should we receive a disaster supplemental appropriations request from the Trump administration,” he added.
Sen. Adam Schiff, California’s junior senator, said he’s heard from some Republicans in Congress who believe that all states, whether blue or red, should receive federal support in times of such crises.
“I think in Congress, amongst the appropriators, there’s a willingness to push for this funding. We’ve seen Republicans join our calls for disaster relief,” Schiff said.
But although Congress could act on its own to approve disaster aid for California, Schiff said, “what we’ve largely heard is that Republican colleagues are waiting for the request to come from the administration.”
The Trump administration did not respond specifically to a question about whether the president intends to request that Congress approve supplemental aid for California, though one White House official said generally that it shouldn’t be the role of the federal government or federal taxpayers to bail out state or local government officials who make poor decisions.
Although some might wonder if the silence thus far from the Trump administration should be read as a sign that the federal government won’t provide assistance to California, members of Congress say the fact that lawmakers haven’t yet voted to send more aid to the Golden State doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
Reps. Judy Chu, D-Monterey Park, and Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks, both represent communities hit hardest by the January wildfires and have advocated all year for more funding. At the same time, both acknowledged that it’s common for Congress not to vote on supplemental aid until the year following a disaster.
Often, Congress will vote for supplemental aid for multiple states that have survived disasters as part of one package. That means red states need Democrats to agree on aid for them and vice versa, said Chu.
“We would not pass (aid for) one without the other,” Chu said. “They (Republicans) would need our votes, and we (Democrats) would need their votes. I think our interests are one and the same.”
Another thing that gives Chu hope that funding for California will come through is the fact that the Los Angeles area will soon play host to the 2028 Olympics. In August, the president named himself chair of a new task force to prepare for those Summer Games.
“Trump is making himself the leader of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles,” Chu said. “Wouldn’t it be in his interest to make sure that L.A. looks the best that it can possibly be, rather than a bunch of burned-out lots?”
Trying to get inside Trump’s head can be tricky, though.
Sherman noted that Trump did not stop emergency aid dollars that had been approved by Biden before the Democrat left office from flowing to California.
“California has received significant money that was in the pipeline on Jan. 20 when Biden left,” Sherman said. “For all his bluster, Trump didn’t do anything to hurt us.”
At the same time, Sherman said, “he hasn’t provided any (more) money.”
The congressmember from the San Fernando Valley could only venture a guess as to whether Congress would ultimately approve all of the nearly $34 billion that Newsom is seeking, or even come close to that amount.
“It is a big request,” Sherman said. “I think that the mood among people who are not Californians is ‘Yeah, we should do something. No, we’re not going to do everything Gavin’s asking for’ — which doesn’t mean he’s wrong to ask for it.”
Aid with conditions?
Shortly after the Southern California wildfires, Trump suggested conditioning aid to California on changing the way the state handles water or forestry land management. He also threw out the idea of tying aid to new voter ID laws.
Padilla agreed that there is “room to improve policies” to reduce fire risks. That’s why, the senator said, he introduced a bipartisan bill, the Fix Our Forest Act, that would streamline wildfire mitigation projects, establish a new intelligence center to streamline federal response to wildfires, advance more responsible forest management practices and promote more pre-deployments of resources when weather events are anticipated.
“There are policy changes that make sense. And we have a standalone bill to do exactly that,” Padilla said. “But these should not be done as a condition on anybody’s aid.”
Schiff said it makes sense for California — a “donor state” that typically sends more money to the federal government in taxes than it gets back — to receive additional disaster aid.
“I am confident that we’ll get the funding,” Schiff said. But, he added, “the question is, how soon?”
“Time really matters,” he said. “People are eager to begin to rebuild.”
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