California Wildfires and Trump's Controversial Aid Demands
LOS ANGELES — President Donald Trump on Friday demanded concessions from California Democrats on two pet issues unrelated to the devastating Los Angeles County wildfires — requiring voter ID at the polls and sending more water from Northern California to other parts of the state — in his clearest public indication yet of what he wants in exchange for federal disaster aid.
Controversy Over Aid Conditions
The stunning salvo — mere hours before Trump was set to land in Los Angeles to tour the area — instantly undermined a strategy from local officials and members of Congress, who had hoped a firsthand view of the destruction would appeal to the president’s emotions. It also put congressional Republicans, particularly in swing districts, in the difficult position of advocating for their fire-scarred home state’s welfare without getting crosswise with their party’s leader.
“Trump says he’ll only approve aid for fire victims if the state implements voter ID?” California Sen. Alex Padilla said Friday. “This is nothing but pure political payback for a state that refused to support him in his last three presidential campaigns.”
The requests target two of the president’s central preoccupations with California. He has claimed, against polling and years of election results indicating that the state is deeply liberal, that he would have won California had voters been required to show identification at polling locations in November. Trump has also bashed state water policy and conjured the image of a faucet in Northern California that, if only opened, could divert more water into the Central Valley and Southern California and help with the fire response — even if that’s not how state aqueducts work.
Response from Officials
“I want to see voter ID, so that the people have a chance to vote, and I want to see the water released and come down into Los Angeles and throughout the state,” Trump told reporters.
“After that, I will be the greatest president that California has ever seen,” he said.
The debate over disaster-aid conditions started just days after the deadly fires began tearing through Los Angeles, destroying much of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles and the nearby city of Altadena. Former President Biden, as he increased aid to the region in the final days of his term, said he prayed that the help would continue under a Trump administration.
Some Republican representatives have signaled support for attaching strings to aid that would set guardrails around how the money can be spent, but many have objected to unrelated conditions such as tying aid to a proposal to raise the debt ceiling. Californians across every geography view wildfires as a problem, according to recent polling.
Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley previously told the Hill there “should be safeguards to make sure the money gets to the victims. But when KCRA 3 asked him if there should be conditions unrelated to wildfire policy, Kiley said, “no.”
Political Ramifications
“That would not be appropriate, and I will not be in favor of anything like that,” Kiley said.
California Republicans in and around Trump’s orbit have made voter ID requirements a rallying cry for years. Trump ally Richard Grenell, who has repeatedly called for such a change, was scheduled to accompany the president in Los Angeles. Grenell has pushed to require voters to show proof of their identity when casting ballots alongside state assemblymembers Bill Essayli and Carl DeMaio, the most vocal representatives of the California Legislature’s far-right bloc.
“A great start!” DeMaio wrote on X in response to the president’s call for voter ID requirements. “Thank you, President Trump!”
Democrats decried the notion of wildfire aid being used as leverage in an election policy debate. They had already railed against Trump and their Hill opponents who have floated tying federal relief to an increase to the debt ceiling, among other unrelated policies.
“This is despicable,” Rep. Dave Min (D-Calif), who as a state lawmaker authored a bill banning voter ID requirements, said in an interview Friday. “It is un-American, and it is unfortunately carrying on what we’ve seen in this last week of Trump being sworn in, a series of very un-American actions.”
Call for Unconditional Aid
Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) reiterated the call for aid with no strings attached, “just as America has done with federal disaster assistance for our entire history,” in a statement Friday. “The people here have suffered too much; we should never play politics holding up or denying the relief people need to continue healing, recovering, and rebuilding from natural disasters,” she said.
Asked about Trump’s voter ID demand, Chu demurred. “The president says a lot of things,” she said in a phone interview, “and even continuously adds to the things that he wants.”
Rep. Ro Khanna blasted Trump’s threat in a phone interview, and said he’s taking it seriously.
“We need to have unconditional aid to California,” Khanna (D-Calif.) said. “Do you want Democrats to say, if there’s a disaster in a red state, that we’re going to link disaster funding to their laws on reproductive rights or their laws on voting rights?”
Gov. Gavin Newsom, who planned to meet Trump on the tarmac in Los Angeles, said in a statement that “conditioning aid for American citizens is wrong.”
The state is embroiled in a lawsuit against the conservative city Huntington Beach over its attempt to implement a local voter identification requirement. California officials recently appealed a decision in favor of the city.
