They involve voter identification rules and water, the president signaled.
President Donald Trump said on Friday that he wants Los Angeles and California to fulfill two requirements before he offers federal support to wildfire-devastated areas in the state.
“I want to see two things in Los Angeles. Voter ID, so that the people have a chance to vote, and I want to see the water be released and come down into Los Angeles and throughout the state,” Trump told reporters in North Carolina.
Trump is slated to visit the Los Angeles area on Friday after visiting western North Carolina, which was devastated by Hurricane Helene in late September 2024. Parts of Los Angeles were destroyed this month in several wildfires that spread rapidly, leaving dozens of people dead and thousands of structures burned to the ground.
“Those are the two things. After that, I will be the greatest president that California has ever seen,” he said of the aid.
Earlier this week, the president told Fox News that he would consider withholding aid to California over the state’s water issues. He suggested that California’s water and fire issues were due to state mismanagement.
“I don’t think we should give California anything until they let water flow down,” he said, adding that Gov. Gavin Newsom has “got one thing he can do,” which is to “release the water that comes from the north.”
“There is massive amounts of water, rainwater, and mountain water that comes due with the snow, comes down … as it melts. There’s so much water,” the president said.
On Monday, Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to “route more water” from Northern California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to other parts of the Golden State due to the wildfires in what he said was an attempt to end “radical environmentalism” that was essentially putting fish over people.
“The recent deadly and historically destructive wildfires in Southern California underscore why the State of California needs a reliable water supply and sound vegetation management practices in order to provide water desperately needed there, and why this plan must immediately be reimplemented,” the White House said.
Also on Friday, Trump said he would sign an executive order to reform or even dissolve the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
