Ahead of a likely meeting in California today, here’s a pretty interesting exchange between CA Gov. Gavin Newsom and Donald Trump five years ago, during another episode of fires in California.
Trump was in between re-election campaign stops, giving remarks recognizing the California National Guard, when the two foes met to discuss the fires in a briefing.
Around the 45:30 mark, Newsom acknowledges California’s poor history of forestry management while respectfully disagreeing with Trump on climate change.
“We can agree to disagree and I appreciate your frame on the politics of this, but let me just acknowledge a few things briefly…. there’s no question when you look past this decade and looking past a thousand plus years that we have not done justice on our forest management. I don’t think anyone disputes that.
…. We acknowledge our roll and responsibility to do more in that space, but one thing is fundamental. 57% of the land in this state is federal forest land. 3% is California. So we really do need that support.
…. We obviously feel very strongly that the hots are getting hotter, the dries are getting drier… something’s happened to the plumbing of the world and we come from a perspective, humbly, where the science is in and the evidence is self-evident — that climate change is real and that is exacerbating this.
So I think there is an area of at least commonality on forest management, but please respect – and I know you do – the difference of opinion out here as it relates to this fundamental issue on the issue of climate change.”
To which Trump responds, “Sure, absolutely” and moves on.
By the way, this wasn’t the first meeting between the two.
Back in 2018, the two met (Newsom was governor-elect of California) and surveyed Northern California fire damage and Politico noted at the time it was “after trading barbs all year.”
As for this round of fires, “trading barbs” would be a fairly sanguine characterization as things seem more intense between the two, but Newsom does plan to meet with Trump when he lands in the state, although it’s unclear whether the two will do more than that.
Politico notes that Newsom is trying to cool temperatures on the dispute by saying he has “a lot of relationships in the Trump world; a lot of relationships of trust. I communicate with a lot of folks around him, folks that have his ear and influence.”
Newsom is in a tricky spot. As with other states going through natural disasters, California is in desperate need for federal help and Trump has made it quite clear current or potential future aid might depend on changing course in his preferred direction on forest management and other issues.
That’s a practically unprecedented politicization of a natural disaster from a federal perspective, and it’s forcing Newsom to openly grapple with the usual implicit political nature of disasters like this.
Considering the stakes for his state, the upcoming 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, and Californians’ hope for aid, I would expect Newsom to be diplomatic and potentially deferential in his meeting with Trump today. After all, that approach seems to work pretty well with Trump.
[Hat tip: A PBS fact-check of Trump’s claims on the fire included a link to this video. The video is an interesting bit of cultural history, too, with Newsom wearing a mask and Trump, maskless].
