Schiff Snubs Trump’s Trip To California To Tour Wildfire Areas

“Senator Schiff greatly appreciates the President’s visit to see the devastation of these wildfires firsthand and the invitation to accompany him, and regrets that he’s unable to join the President in Los Angeles due to scheduled nomination votes. Senator Schiff is committed to working with the Trump Administration, state and local leaders, as well as his colleagues on both sides of the aisle, to ensure that California gets the aid and support it needs to rebuild and recover from these wildfires,” the spokesperson said.

Using the first trip of his second administration, Trump traveled to areas where politics have influenced the response to catastrophic catastrophes on Friday, visiting wildfire-ravaged Los Angeles and hurricane-battered North Carolina.

Former President Joe Biden’s administration’s response to Hurricane Helene in North Carolina has drawn criticism from the Republican president.

Trump told reporters as he was leaving the White House that “we’re going to get it fixed up” and that “it’s been a horrible thing the way that’s been allowed to fester” since the hurricane struck in September.

Additionally, Trump has called out California authorities for water restrictions that he wrongly claimed made the latest fires worse.

“I would like to examine a fire that could have been extinguished if they had allowed the water to flow, but they did not,” he stated.

Following a briefing on recovery efforts in North Carolina, Trump will visit a tiny village outside of Asheville to speak with locals who have benefited from the work of Samaritan’s Purse, a humanitarian organization led by Franklin Graham, an evangelical leader.

Trump intends to visit the Pacific Palisades neighborhood in California, where countless homes were destroyed by fire. He is anticipated to be briefed on the ongoing fires, which have forced thousands of people to evacuate.

“I don’t think we should give California anything until they let the water run down,” Trump said Wednesday in an interview with Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity.

The president also proposed giving states more authority over disaster management.

“I’d rather see the states take care of their own problems,” he told Hannity, adding that “FEMA is getting in the way of everything.”

In Newland, North Carolina, Laurie Carpenter, a 62-year-old retiree, expressed her excitement for Trump’s arrival, saying she has been let down by the federal reaction. Months after Hurricane Helene, she added, trash and debris are still scattered throughout her area of the state.

“If anybody’s going to do something about it, I think he will,” Carpenter said.

Trump tapped Cameron Hamilton, a former Navy SEAL, as FEMA’s acting director.

Additionally, he stated that states should be in charge of coordinating their response to natural catastrophes, not FEMA, and that the federal government should only intervene later to supply financing.

Trump is scheduled to hold a rally in Las Vegas on Saturday following his stops in North Carolina and California. He will provide information on fulfilling a campaign pledge to exempt tips from federal taxes, according to advisers, as he celebrates winning Nevada in an unexpected election-day victory.

The service and hospitality sectors, which depend on gratuities for everything from hotel maids to valet parkers to restaurant servers, are the backbone of Las Vegas’ round-the-clock economy. However, it would probably be challenging to put into effect and would need a permanent act of Congress to exempt them from taxes. Authors Makiya Seminera, Seth Borenstein, and Stephen Groves of the Associated Press contributed to this report.

“I’m going to go to Nevada to thank them,” Trump said. He was the first Republican candidate to win the state since 2004, when George W. Bush beat John Kerry.