Trump and Newsom put tensions aside as president arrives in LA to survey extensive wildfires damage
Donald Trump and Gavin Newsom put on a united front on the tarmac of Los Angeles International Airport on Friday, as the president arrived in California for a visit to survey the devastation caused by the wildfires.
Despite previous online acrimony between the men, the California governor smiled as he shook hands with Trump and proceeded to give the First Lady a kiss on the cheek.
In short remarks to the press at LAX, the president thanked Newsom for meeting him off the plane and promised to do everything he could to get the problems “permanently fixed.”
“I appreciate the governor coming out… we’ll be talking a lot and we want to get it fixed,” he said.
The surprisingly pleasant exchange comes just hours after Trump appeared to snub Newsom by not including him on his official schedule during the trip, despite arranging a meeting with LA mayor Karen Bass while in the city.
Newsom fulfilled his promise to wait for the president on the tarmac. Speaking to reporters alongside the Governor, Trump remarked that Los Angeles looked “like you got hit by a bomb.”
“Thank you for being here, it means a great deal a lot to all of us… we’re gonna need your support, we’re gonna need your help,” Newsom replied.
“You were there for us in Covid, I don’t forget that and I have all the expectations that we’ll be able to work together to make this speedy recovery.”
“We’re gonna get it done,” Trump said. “A tremendous number of lives have been affected and a lot of real estate has been affected… nobody has probably ever seen anything like, you can almost probably say since before the second world war if you think about it.
“We’ll get it permanently fixed so it won’t happen again.”
Trump and Newsom have a long history of sparring online, with the president consistently referring to the governor as “Gavin Newscum.”
The president has continued to blame Newsom for the fires in recent weeks, claiming they “could have been put out if they let the water flow but they didn’t let the water flow and they still haven’t, for whatever reason.”
