California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom plans on crashing President Trump’s arrival to the Golden State when the commander in chief lands in Los Angeles Friday, according to reports.
The 78-year-old president will tour the decimated areas of the fire-ravaged Southern California — where wildfires killed at least 28 people — in one of his first presidential acts outside of Washington, DC.
Although not publicly invited by Trump, Newsom said he will be at the airport with the red carpet to welcome the newly sworn-in president.
“I look forward to being there on the tarmac to thank the president, welcome him, and we’re making sure that all the resources he needs for a successful briefing are provided to him,” he told reporters Thursday.
“There’s no limit to the resources we’ll provide for that briefing,” he added.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass says her office has been in contact with the Trump administration regarding Friday’s trip despite the alleged radio silence between the White House and the State House, Fox LA reported.
Newsom had signed a bill freeing up $2.5 billion in aid for wildfire recovery and welcomed Trump to “support even more investments.”
Ten days before the inauguration, Newsom invited Trump to survey the neighborhoods destroyed by the Palisades and Eaton Fires.
“As you prepare to assume the presidency once more, I invite you to come to California,” the 57-year-old wrote in a letter to the then-president-elect, which he shared on social media.
The governor had asked for the republican to put their differences aside for the hundreds of thousands of displaced residents that “deserve to see us all working together in their best interests.”
Newsom called out Trump for “spreading disinformation from the sidelines.”
Trump called for the Democrat to resign as Newsom faced backlash for the area’s lack of preparation despite warnings of the dangerous Santa Ana winds and the failure of forest management leading up to the fires.
“One of the best and most beautiful parts of the United States of America is burning down to the ground. It’s ashes, and Gavin Newscum [sic] should resign. This is all his fault!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump also alleged Newsom chose to save an extinct fish species instead of sending more water to Southern California.
“He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt… but didn’t care about the people of California,” he said.
Trump recently called out Newsom during his first interview of his second term.
“This fire was just raging, and then it would catch to another area, another area, another area,” he went on. “It took a week and a half — and I’ve never seen anything like it. We look so weak,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity Wednesday.
“Why is that you don’t want millions of gallons of water a day pouring throughout California?” he added. “Millions of gallons of water is diverted, way up north in California into the Pacific Ocean.”
Trump described the fires as if a “nuclear bomb” had gone off and said he was unsure if he would meet with Newsom.
“I don’t know, I haven’t even thought about it,” he said.
The two politicians have thrown verbal barbs at each other since before Trump was elected in 2016, when Newsom was still the lieutenant governor.
In a July 2015 Facebook post, Newsom called out Trump’s “offensive and dangerous” rhetoric the real estate mogul star used during his first campaign for office, especially against illegal immigrants.
During a visit in November 2018, Trump and then-Gov.-elect Newsom toured the ruins of Paradise, Calif. following the deadly Camp Fire that killed 85 people.
The Butte County blaze is the deadliest and most destructive wildfire the state history.
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