President Donald Trump is visiting the wildfire devastation in deep-blue California as part of his first trip since being sworn in, and he is being selective about who will accompany him.
Trump is set to visit the wildfire damage in Los Angeles on Friday after visiting the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina earlier in the day. His visit to the Golden State will feature several local officials, while some prominent officials will not appear with the president.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), a frequent critic of Trump, invited the president to visit the destruction caused by wildfires in Los Angeles in recent weeks, but the governor was not invited to Trump’s planned visit to the Pacific Palisades neighborhood and emergency briefing, according to Politico.
Newsom has said he will greet Trump on the runway at Los Angeles International Airport when Air Force One lands.
Neither of California’s senators will be present for the presidential visit either because votes are scheduled in the upper chamber of Congress for Friday and are expected to last through the weekend, as Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Friday.
“I’m glad that he’s going,” Schiff said. “A number of us invited him to come to the state, and he reciprocated, inviting us to join him to go to these fire areas. Regrettably, Sen. Padilla and I have votes today in the Senate, so we aren’t able to go. But I’m glad he’s going.”
Trump, apparently not knowing that Schiff had been invited to the briefing, told reporters before leaving the White House that he personally “didn’t invite him.”
“I don’t know. I really don’t,” Trump said when asked if Schiff would travel with him. “You know, if he’s going to be there, it would be cheaper, but I didn’t invite him. Somebody did.”
The expected attendees of Trump’s visit to the wildfire devastation in California include Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, Forest Service Chief Randy Moore, and eight members of Congress from the Golden State, among others.
Bass was criticized heavily by Republicans and Democrats for being abroad when the fires broke out. She returned to Los Angeles from Ghana the day after the Palisades Fire erupted but said she had been in “constant contact” with local officials.
She has also faced questions about the city’s budget cuts, particularly the direct cuts to the Los Angeles Fire Department in June 2024.
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Ahead of Trump’s visit, the president said he wanted voter ID laws and reforms to the water systems in California before approving aid to help the state rebuild from the deadly wildfires.
“I want to see two things in Los Angeles: voter ID so that the people have a chance to vote, and I want to see the water be released and come down into Los Angeles and throughout the state,” Trump told reporters earlier Friday. “After that, I will be the greatest president that California has ever seen.”
