(Julianna Frieman, Headline USA) President Donald Trump sparred with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who was traveling abroad in Ghana when California’s fires broke out, Friday after she pushed back on rebuilding the state as quickly as possible.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., met Trump at the tarmac before the Republican president toured the devastation and held a roundtable meeting with state leaders and lawmakers. California’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies were widely blamed for Los Angeles’s incompetent, lesbian-led fire department and a Ghana-bound Bass as flames raged on without reprieve.
Trump did not hesitate to call out Bass in their televised meeting, slamming the Los Angeles mayor for slow-walking recovery efforts.
JUST IN: President Trump and LA mayor Karen Bass spar on live TV, Trump tells her to stop taking so long.
The spat we’ve all been waiting for.
Trump: “I'm exercising my emergency powers. You have to exercise them also. You can do everything within 24 hours.”
Bass: “And if… pic.twitter.com/PCdcjS431S
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 25, 2025
One man affected by the Pacific Palisades wildfire asked Bass how soon relief would come, telling her that victims “are all hanging on” her words as they struggle with rent and getting back to their lives.
Trump immediately said, “six months is no good,” balking the Democrat mayor’s murky plan. Base attempted to grandstand about moving debris from affected areas, but the president did not buy her attempted slow-down under the guise of safety.
“But the people are willing to clean out their own debris. It doesn’t cost a lot,” Trump said of Bass’s attempt to defer the responsibility to the federal government.
President @realDonaldTrump and Governor @GavinNewsom take questions from the press in California pic.twitter.com/Qf9N5tTWPJ
— Margo Martin (@MargoMartin47) January 24, 2025
Bass acknowledged that people “can” move their own debris from affected sites, but Trump did not accept her response. The president said, “You should let them do it because by the time you hire contractors, it’s gonna be two years.”
Bass stuttered as she tried to combat Trump’s common sense approach, but he did not give her any leeway.
“I know that guy right there that’s talking. I know my people. He’ll be on that thing tonight, throwing the stuff away and your site will be, it will look perfect within 24 hours,” Trump said.
The president added, “He doesn’t want to wait around for seven months until the city hires some demolition contract that’s gonna charge him $25,000 to do his lot.”
Trump visited North Carolina earlier Friday to tour the damage caused by Hurricane Helene in Sept. 2024. In what was the first trip of his second term, Trump said he was considering “getting rid of” the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
“FEMA has been a very big disappointment,” the Republican president said. “It’s very bureaucratic. And it’s very slow.”
Julianna Frieman is a freelance writer published by the Daily Caller, Headline USA, The Federalist, and the American Spectator. Follow her on Twitter at @JuliannaFrieman.
