President Donald Trump sits across from California Governor Gavin Newsom at a press conference on the state’s increasingly destructive fire season. Screen shot from the PBS NewsHour YouTube channel.
On Sept. 14, nearly one month after the August fires began, President Donald Trump arrived in California’s capital city to receive a briefing on the vast devastation of this year's fire season. The meeting was recorded and broadcasted live by PBS NewsHour.
Quickly, Gov. Gavin Newsom let Trump know he agrees with the president’s oft-stated opinion that the forests of California require better management—in part. Newsom implored the president to help the state’s Forest Management Task Force to get that job done. “One thing is fundamental,” Newsom said. “Fifty-seven percent of land in this state is federal forest land. Three percent is California. So we really do need that support and emphasis of engagement.”
Newsom again attempted to appeal to the president when he praised him for his release of funds from the Fire Management Assistance Grant. The governor told the president that funds his administration gave the state is a record FMAG contribution. But in the briefing, Newsom reminded POTUS that fires hit not just forests but also low brushlands and grasslands. The president quietly nodded—occasionally from side to side.
President Trump told the governor that as long as the forests are addressed, the fires will go away. “It will get cooler,” he insisted with certainty, demonstrating his counter-scientific belief that global warming does not contribute to California’s increasingly violent wildfires.
Newsom appeared to try and set the president straight.
“We feel very strongly that the hots are getting hotter, the dries are getting drier. We feel that we’re having heat domes the likes of which we’ve never seen in our history,” Newsom said. “Please, respect the difference of opinion out here, as it relates to the fundamental issue of climate change.”
Some collaboration was finalized in the briefing as thanks were extended. The issue of climate change remained at an impasse.
