SACRAMENTO — California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday recalled the “apocalyptic” devastation of the Palisades and Eaton fires firsthand as Californians prepare to mark the first anniversary of the blazes, which killed a total of 31 people and burned thousands of homes.
“It was like a bomb going off, no other way to describe it,” Newsom said. “And I was there just a few hours after the fire, and was there physically in the midst of the firefighting as I went up into the foothills and experienced firsthand what our first responders were dealing with.”
Newsom’s comments came during a wide-ranging interview that aired Monday evening on MS NOW with Jacob Soboroff, who covered the fires in January 2025 as his own childhood home in Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades neighborhood was destroyed. Soboroff’s new book, “Firestorm,” chronicles the disaster from the front lines and publishes on Tuesday.
Newsom said the city has made “tremendous progress” toward recovery in the wake of the wildfires, which were the costliest in American history. But he criticized President Donald Trump for refusing to submit a formal request to Congress for $33.9 billion in federal disaster aid, and chided the administration for failing to make a FEMA representative available to meet with him about the requests.
“They were simply unavailable at any time for even a moment to just engage,” Newsom said. “He’s dismantling FEMA. He’s dismantling any notion of objectivity about climate science, research, grants, and support for cities, counties, states.”
Newsom asserted that Trump’s aggressive immigration policies and ensuing ICE raids across Los Angeles hindered efforts to rebuild.
The raids “impacted the entire construction industry across the United States,” he said, noting that immigrants make up a substantial section of the workforce.
“The challenges, the headwinds of immigration policy and tariff policy are hurting the recovery and making it more costly,” Newsom said.
Last week, Trump announced that he would pull National Guard troops from Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, while musing that he might redeploy the forces “perhaps in a much different and stronger form.” In response, Newsom suggested Trump could someday go further by invoking the Insurrection Act.
“He’s constantly testing the boundaries, and he unquestionably will be doing it again, including what he’s doing with these quick response teams that he’s committed to this month in all 50 states, that will give him the ability to move in a moment’s notice to every major urban center in America,” referring to the availability of National Guard quick reaction forces.
Asked how voters should view his handling of the wildfires through the lens of his potential bid for the presidency in 2028, Newsom cast himself as Trump’s foil.
“I’m still there, having the backs of the folks down there. You’re going to find folks, of course, people are out there, furious, upset. I get it. Their lives have been completely torn asunder,” Newsom said.
He continued: “But we continue to go back and we’ll have their backs, unlike the president of the United States, who’s not done a damn thing, hasn’t lifted a finger. So you talk about the attributes for a president of the United States, take a look at what you’ve got and consider the opposite. And that’s what the American people deserve.”
Looking ahead to California’s gubernatorial race this year, Newsom, who is term-limited, said he has “no idea” whether he’ll endorse any of the candidates running to replace him, but encouraged the contenders to prioritize the ongoing recovery efforts.
Asked where he thinks he can be most useful in the lead-up to the midterms, Newsom said he’s “got a lot of work to do here to make sure we fulfill the commitment we made, which was to get five additional seats.” He was referring to Prop 50, California Democrats’ redistricting ballot measure, which passed in November.
“And so it’s one thing to get the new maps. It’s another to actually get the candidates and to make sure they’re successful,” he said.
He added that he’ll campaign on behalf of candidates outside California, “if needed, if requested.”
Jacob Soboroff is a senior political and national correspondent for MS NOW.
