By LISA MASCARO and CHRIS MEGERIAN, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal disaster aid for wildfire-ravaged Los Angeles unless California leaders change the state’s approach on its management of water.
In a Fox News Channel interview on Wednesday, Trump repeated false claims that the state’s fish conservation efforts in the northern part of the state are responsible for fire hydrants running dry in urban areas. He says the blame for Los Angeles’ struggles to tame some of the deadly fires lies with Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, a political foe who has called for partnership and mutual respect as the state fights the blazes.
“I don’t think we should give California anything until they let the water run down,” Trump said in an interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity.
The president leveled the threat as he prepares for the first presidential trip of his second term. On Friday, he will visit Southern California in addition to western North Carolina, which is recovering after Hurricane Helene pummeled the area more than three months ago.
Trump in the interview also called for reform of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, claiming it is “getting in the way of everything.”
“I’d rather see the states take care of their own problems,” he said. He did not elaborate on his proposed reforms, only saying that the agency is “going to be a whole big discussion very shortly.”
In other developments for the new administration, Trump met Wednesday with a small contingent of the most politically endangered House Republicans as the party struggles to agree on a strategy for implementing the tax cuts and other priorities that it promised voters.
The meeting happened as Trump tried to advance other priorities during the first week of his second term. Roughly 160 aides at the National Security Council were sent home while it is determined whether they align with Trump’s agenda. The Pentagon has begun deploying 1,500 active-duty troops to support border security efforts.
“The American people have been waiting for such a time as this,” said Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary.
Stephen Miller, a top Trump adviser, met with Senate Republicans to update them on plans for deportations and reinstating Title 42, a policy that was put in place during the coronavirus pandemic to stop border crossings.
Although Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress, they have only thin majorities on Capitol Hill, and there are disagreements on how to move forward with so many issues on the table.
Trump’s meeting unfolded amid a series of private “listening sessions” with House Speaker Mike Johnson, whose ability to unite his conference will be sorely tested in the weeks and months ahead. Trump has held his own dinners with Republican lawmakers at Mar-a-Lago, and he’s preparing to address them next week at their private retreat in Doral, Florida, where the president owns a resort.
“We’re working very closely in close coordination with the White House because this is an America First agenda that takes both of those branches of government to work in tandem,” Johnson said Wednesday at a news conference.
Trump on Wednesday also announced his picks for U.S. Secret Service director and European Union ambassador.
He’s nominating former fast food executive Andrew Puzder to serve as his EU envoy and Secret Service veteran Sean Curran as his pick to head the U.S. Secret Service.
Puzder, a former chief executive of CKE Restaurants, the parent company of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s restaurants, was nominated by Trump to serve as labor secretary early in his first term, but abruptly withdrew his nomination after Senate Republicans balked at supporting him, in part over taxes he belatedly paid on a former housekeeper not authorized to work in the U.S. Puzder didn’t pay taxes on the housekeeper until after Trump nominated him to the Cabinet post and five years after he had fired the worker.
Curran was among the agents who rushed to Trump’s aid after he was shot in the ear in a failed assassination attempt at a July campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. He served as the assistant special agent in charge of the presidential protective division during Trump’s first term.
In a posting on Truth Social, Trump praised Curran for his “fearless courage” during the Pennsylvania assassination attempt.
“Sean has distinguished himself as a brilliant leader, who is capable of directing and leading operational security plans for some of the most complex Special Security Events in the History of our Country, and the World,” Trump said.
Trump in the Fox News interview also suggested he would like to see investigations into former President Joe Biden.
Trump is the first president to be convicted of a felony — in a case relating to business records of hush money payments — and had faced criminal charges over his role in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
“It’s really hard to say that they shouldn’t have to go through it also,” he says.
Associated Press writers Zeke Miller and Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.