Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) rebutted multiple social media posts containing information on the state’s budget cuts and zoning laws as the wildfires continue to devastate Los Angeles.
Since Tuesday afternoon, Los Angeles has been battling large wildfires as the high-speed Santa Ana winds have spread the fires quickly across entire neighborhoods, burning to the ground thousands of homes, businesses, schools, and places of worship. Republicans have slammed Newsom’s leadership as the wildfires rage across the region.
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Friday, Newsom rebutted an article from Fox News claiming that the California state budget cut funding to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) by $100 million.
“A ridiculous lie,” Newsom said. “We have doubled the size of our firefighting army, built the world’s largest aerial firefighting fleet, and increased the forest management ten-fold since taking office.”
The 2024-25 California state budget cut funding for wildfire and forest resilience by $101 million, but under Newsom’s leadership, the CAL FIRE budget has increased dramatically from $1.1 billion in 2014 to $3 billion in 2023. Newsom assumed the office of the governor in 2019.
Newsom responded to another post from an anonymous account claiming that the governor was working with developers to change zoning laws to allow for apartments where houses burned down.
“This is not true,” Newsom said in a short response.
I’m not interested in politicizing a natural disaster. pic.twitter.com/XV9j6A8Mg6
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) January 11, 2025
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Newsom also invited President-elect Donald Trump, who has spread various misleading claims about the fires, to come to California to witness the devastation as the President-elect.
“As you prepare to assume the presidency once more, I invite you to come to California again — to meet with the Americans affected by these fires, see the devastation firsthand, and join me and others in thanking the heroic firefighters and first responders who are putting their lives on the line,” Newsom wrote in the invitation. “In this spirit of this great country, we must not politicize human tragedy or spread disinformation from the sidelines.”
Speaking to Pod Save America on Friday, Newsom said he invited Trump because he has a history of withholding aid to areas going through disaster when he does not agree with that area’s leadership.
Newsom said that Trump’s accusations about “state water project” and Delta-smelt fish and being the cause of the fire were “made up” and “delusional.”
“It’s a consistent mantra from going back years and years, and it’s reinforced over and over within the right wing, so it’s become gospel. It’s so profoundly ignorant, and yet he absolutely believes it,” Newsom said.
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Management of this disaster could play into who Democrats will consider for the nominee in the next presidential election, since Newsom is widely expected to enter the race. Failure to properly address concerns of voters, particularly those impacted by the fires, could plague his political future after his term expires in 2026.
There are currently four active fires across Los Angeles, the nation’s most populous county. The Palisades Fire, which devastated the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles as well as Malibu and Topanga, stands at 11% containment.
