President Trump ripped California Gov. Gavin Newsom Wednesday for mismanaging California before the destructive Los Angeles wildfires and defending sanctuary cities, arguing that the Democratic governor looks like “an idiot.”
“If you actually polled the people, they don’t want sanctuary cities,” Trump said during an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, his first televised sit-down since reclaiming the White House.
“But Gavin Newsom does, and these radical left politicians do,” he added. “And you know, if you asked him why, they couldn’t even — I watched Gavin Newsom try to answer that question. He was unable to even answer.”
“He looked like an idiot. He was unable to answer.”
The president then took aim at the lack of forest management in the 57-year-old governor’s state and Newsom’s refusal to allow stormwater from the north to flow down freely to Southern California – arguing that the two policies led to one of the most destructive wildfires in Golden State history.
“I took criticism because I said, ‘You have to manage your forest,’” Trump recalled chastising Newsom years before the devastation.
“That’s like a nuclear weapon went off. What’s happened to Los Angeles?”
“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.
“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, 78, also told Hannity he was hoping to link future federal aid funding to California “on them practicing the science of forestry,” noting that he’d learned a thing or two from world leaders on the subject during his first term.
“A number of them actually: Finland told me this, Austria told me this,” he recounted. “And it was beautiful the way they expressed it. They said, ‘We live in a forest. We are a forest nation.’ That’s beautiful.’”
“Far more beautiful than what they have in California, and much more flammable,” he pointed out.
In the run-up to the president’s inauguration, Newsom worked to “Trump-proof” California – requesting $25 million in emergency funding from the state legislature to cover the cost of legal battles he expects to have with the 47th president.
The governor’s office claims the massive budget request will “safeguard critical funding for disaster relief, health care programs, and other vital services” during Trump’s second term.
The Newsom administration has also drawn up plans to help illegal migrants dodge deportation under Trump, circulating an internal memo last month drafted by California’s Department of Social Services that calls for the “creation of an Immigrant Support Network” that would refer migrants facing deportation to various legal and support groups.
Trump did not reveal Wednesday whether he plans to meet with Newsom about the wildfire recovery effort.
