Speaker Mike Johnson said he thinks that President-elect Donald Trump will be visiting the site of the wildfire destruction in Southern California.
“I spoke to President Trump about 90 minutes ago,” Johnson said during a press conference on Monday. ”I think he’s planning to go make a trip himself to Southern California to see the disaster himself, and we will follow the administration’s lead on this.“ He didn’t specify expected timing.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom sent Trump a letter inviting him to visit the disaster area last week. A Newsom spokesperson said the governor had not heard back and was not sure if Newsom and Trump would meet. Trump has repeatedly blamed Newsom for the wildfires in social media posts.
“As we said in our invite to the president-elect, he needs to come see the catastrophic damage, meet with people who’ve lost their homes, and get the facts instead of spreading misinformation from the sidelines,” said Izzy Gardon, the Newsom spokesperson.
California Democratic Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, alongside Democratic Reps. Judy Chu, Brad Sherman, Ted Lieu and George Whitesides, who represent the areas hit by the wildfires, also sent a letter to Trump inviting him to survey the area.
Johnson, who extended his sympathies for the people of California, also critiqued Newsom’s policies in the press conference on Tuesday — though he didn’t lean in as far as Trump.
“There are natural disasters, of course, but if they are made much worse by human error and deliberative policy choices that were unwise, and were stated as such at the time, then I think that that’s something that needs to be carefully regarded,” Johnson said.
Blake Jones contributed to this report.
