Trump threatens to yank fire aid to California

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — President Donald Trump threatened Wednesday to withhold money to help California cope with wildfires, a day after new Gov. Gavin Newsom asked him to double the federal investment in forest management.

Trump again suggested poor forest management is to blame for California’s deadly wildfires and said he’s ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to stop giving the state money “unless they get their act together.”

Fire scientists say climate change, not poor forest management, is the driving contributor to California’s increasingly destructive wildfires, many of which have not been primarily in forests.

FEMA could not immediately comment because of the government shutdown. Trump has previously threatened to withhold wildfire payments but never followed through.

Hours after Trump’s tweet, the state’s emergency operations agency said FEMA is extending its deadline for victims of deadly November wildfires to seek assistance.

Newsom, a Democrat who took office Monday, said Californians affected by wildfires “should not be victims to partisan bickering.”

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., in a statement said, “It’s absolutely shocking for President Trump to suggest he would deny disaster assistance to communities destroyed by wildfire.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called on Republicans to condemn Trump.

“We should work together to mitigate these fires by combating climate change, not play politics by threatening to withhold money from survivors of a deadly natural disaster,” Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., tweeted.

Several Republican lawmakers who represent the town of Paradise, which was leveled by a fire in November that killed 86 people, said Trump’s tweet was not helpful.

“These are American citizens who need our help,” U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa said.

But Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, of California, defended Trump’s comments on forest management and did not criticize his threat to withhold funding.

McCarthy said he’ll propose more money for forest management as part of Democratic spending bills this week to reopen the government.

But Republicans ultimately don’t plan to back the spending bills.

Whether the president has the authority to rescind FEMA funding that has already been approved remains unclear. Guidelines for the way federal dollars flow after the president declares a national disaster, like he did after the wildfires in California last year, are outlined in the Stafford Act, said Rafael Lemaitre, the former director of public affairs for FEMA under President Barack Obama’s administration.

“I’m not aware of any mechanism where you can say, ‘I’m undeclaring a state of disaster,’” Lemaitre said.