Donald Trump And Gavin Newsom Exchange Friendly Greetings As POTUS Arrives At LAX For Visit To Tour Wildfire Devastation: “We’re Going To Get It Fixed”

Donald Trump was greeted by California Governor Gavin Newsom as he arrived this afternoon at LAX for a tour of wildfire devastation, with the two political rivals exchanging friendly greetings and vowing that they would work together.

“We’re looking to get something completed, and the way you get it completed is to work together,” the president told reporters. He said that the state would “need a lot of federal help,” and then said to Newsom, standing by his side, “unless you don’t need any.”

“We’re going to need a lot of federal help,” Newsom said.

Earlier today, Trump said that he wanted to place conditions on federal aid to California for recovery efforts. One is tied to Trump’s claim — denied by Newsom — that the governor had failed to release water flow from northern to southern California. The other is that the state adopt voter ID requirements, even though that has nothing to do with the wildfire disaster.

But Trump did not put those demands on the table in his initial encounter with Newsom, who was not on the president’s schedule of elected officials who were to participate in a briefing in Pacific Palisades this afternoon. Newsom, though, signaled that he would be talking further to Trump later.

Face-to-face on the tarmac, Trump was much different toward Newsom in person than he has been when the governor is not present, as he has referred to his political foe as “Newscum.” He also has placed blame for the fires on Newsom, who presides over the largest and consistently Democratic state. On Thursday, Newsom said that he had not been in contact with the White House about the visit, but that he would still be waiting at LAX when the president arrived.

Newsom greeted Trump with a handshake, and the president slapped him on the back.

“We’re going to need your support. We’re going to need your help,” Newsom said. “You were there for us during Covid. I don’t forget that, and I have all the expectations that we will be able to work together to get this speedy recovery.”

Trump said, “We are going to get it done. Tremendous numbers of lives have been affected. A lot of real estate has been affected. Nobody’s ever probably seen anything like this, you could almost say since the second World War when you think of it. I mean, nothing like this has happened and we’re going to get it fixed so we’ll get it permanently fixed so that it can’t happen again. We’ll be talking a little bit later, and we’ll get it worked out.”

After the meeting, Newsom posted a thank you on X.

More to come.