Trump to Visit California for a Wildfire Briefing

With California, Oregon and Washington battling deadly wildfires that have incinerated some five million acres and killed at least 24 people, President Trump will touch down in Sacramento Monday morning for what is expected to be a briefing by state and local officials on efforts to contain and manage a horrific natural disaster that is far from over.

Details of the visit were scarce as of Sunday afternoon, as officials with the governor’s office, Cal Fire and the state Office of Emergency Services all told KQED that they had not yet heard what was planned for the president’s visit. But Sunday night, the governor’s office confirmed that Gov. Gavin Newsom will join fire officials who will be briefing the president before heading off on his own to visit an active fire site.

Trump, who said little about the wildfires as they burned out of control for weeks, noted in a tweet over the weekend that he would touch down in California after a weekend of campaigning in Nevada. In addition to California, he also plans to visit Arizona on Monday.

In a statement released to media over the weekend, Deputy White House Press Secretary Judd Deere said “the President continues to support those who are battling raging wildfires in a locally-executed, state-managed, and federally-supported emergency response.”

Trump’s silence as California and the West grappled with conditions described by some as apocalyptic has been widely criticized, especially by Democrats who complain that the president only seems to care about people living in states that voted for him in 2016.

That said, Newsom said last week he had spoken by phone with the president for 30 minutes to fill him in on the wildfires and California’s request for federal assistance. The governor has praised the federal government in the past for approving all disaster requests made by California.

Newsom has been clear he thinks climate change is mainly driving the wildfires, saying the devastation should be a wake-up call for the nation.

“California, folks, is America fast-forward,” Newsom said Friday. “What we’re experiencing right here is coming to communities all across the United States of America unless we get our act together on climate change — unless we disabuse ourselves of all the B.S. being spewed by a very small group of people that have an ideological reason to advance the cause of a nineteenth century framework.”

Trump and some Republicans continue to focus on what they say is the primary culprit — lax management of forest lands.

“I see again, the forest fires are starting. They’re starting again in California,” Trump said at a campaign event in Pennsylvania last month. “And I said, you’ve got to clean your floors. You’ve got to clean your forests.”