REPORT: Gavin Newsom gives wild excuse for delay in rebuilding after fire

July 8, 2025

From Breitbart: California Governor Gavin Newsom attacked Ambassador Ric Grenell on Monday during a press conference on the sixth anniversary of the Palisades and Eaton Fires, slamming him for the “audacity” of his criticism of the state’s recovery effort.

As Breitbart News reported, Grenell said Sunday that he had advised the president not to send California fire relief until underlying problems with the state’s water and forest management are fixed.

Newsom is currently seeking $40 billion in federal aid — but also attacking President Donald Trump’s policies, including on federal immigration law enforcement.

Recently, the governor claimed — wrongly, as it turned out — that Trump had no authority to federalize the California National Guard to suppress riots in Los Angeles against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. Newsom has also signed $50 million in spending to fight Trump’s policies in court, despite the state’s budget deficits.

Sunday morning, Grenell released the following statement, criticizing Newsom:

In California…

We live on the ocean but our Governor can’t figure out how to get more water – so he spends millions of tax dollars telling people to not water their lawns and to take faster showers.

We have 33 million acres of forest land but our Governor can’t figure out how to properly remove dead trees.

When you combine Gavin’s water and forest incompetence- you get deadly fires.

The Sacramento Democrats still haven’t filled up the water reserves or cleaned up the brush. They are still killing desalination plants and commonsense forest management.

The fires will happen again. I’ve told DJT we shouldn’t spend federal money on California if the problems aren’t fixed first.

Meanwhile, Gavin is launching his 5th version of a podcast trying to re-brand himself to run for President. He isn’t interested in fixing the problems.

I pray the Democrats nominate him. He’s a total and complete fraud – and the swing states will see it instantly.

In California…

We live on the ocean but our Governor can’t figure out how to get more water – so he spends millions of tax dollars telling people to not water their lawns and to take faster showers.

We have 33 million acres of forest land but our Governor can’t figure out how…

— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) July 6, 2025

During a press conference, Newsom claimed that illegal aliens represent 41% of the construction workers, and are “foundational” to the rebuilding effort.

Newsom then launched into a wild tirade against the Trump administration. He said:

They know what they’re doing, and then again, they have no idea what they’re doing, and their ignorance is legendary, and the impacts of this will be felt in the recovery. And that’s on them. Donald Trump owns that. He owns the cruelty. He owns the arrogance, not just the ignorance. It’s by definition weakness.

Only a weak person puts on a show like that with horses and bringing the National Guard that should be out there raking his forests.

Ric Grinell, the so-called czar, had the audacity today [sic] to attack this state on this anniversary for not raking its forest when we have a federal forest fire over 80,000 acres on Donald Trump’s forest that these folks behind me are managing. California is an incident command leader on that, that has provided 30% of that fire to now be contained.