President & First Lady Visit
N. Carolina / CA Devastation

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President Trump announced on his first day in office that he would visit North Carolina and California amid devastating natural disasters in both states; and on Friday, January 24, 2025, just four short days after being sworn into office, he delivered on that promise. President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump visited North Carolina and spoke to families about the massive devastation caused by Hurricane Helene on September 24, 2024 that affected parts of North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida and killing over 100 people in North Carolina alone.

Even though many residents are still living in Tents and RV’s in unbearable conditions months after their homes were destroyed; the President and First Lady received a warm welcome from North Carolina families who have lost everything because they believe that President Trump truly cares about them and will help them get their lives back to normal. President Trump also visited North Carolina in October of 2024 before he won the election. In a recent interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, the President stated, “The Democrats don't care about North Carolina. What they've done with FEMA is so bad. FEMA is a whole [other] discussion, because all it does is complicate everything….. We're going to get things straightened out because they're still suffering from a hurricane from months ago.” President Trump has made the folks of North Carolina other States in the region who have been suffering from the Hurricane’s devastation a top priority of his administration. Help is finally on the way.

Following the North Carolina Trip, President Trump and First Lady Melania visited California to see the massive devastation caused by multiple fires across the Los Angeles and Pasadena areas. It is well known and documented that President Trump met with California’s Governor Newsom back in 2017 during his first term as President and warned Newsom about the importance of Forest Management and the need to harness the waters from the Pacific Northwest instead of dumping them into the Pacific Ocean, allowing them to flow to the Southern California region to eliminate any wildfire threats.

In an investigation by CapRadio and NPR’s California Newsroom, Newsom claimed that he signed an executive order in 2019 that resulted in fire prevention work on 90,000 acres, but the state’s own data shows the actual number of acres “treated” through fuel reduction or prescribed burns was a mere 11,399. An example of Newsom’s continued lack of interest in wildfire prevention, shows that in June of 2021, Newsom cut the $1Billion budget in place by his predecessor Governor Brown down to only $458 million. And in a more recent news release By Breitbart News on January 11, 2025, a report has been released showing that Gavin Newsom Cut the Fire Prevention Budget in 2024 by $100 million.

In addition to Newsom’s neglect to the State’s wildfire prevention, Los Angeles ”DEI” Mayor Karen Bass who is clearly grossly incompetent, not only cut the LA Fire Department’s budget by $17.6 million, but also neglected to ensure the maintenance of and water access to, city fire hydrants, in addition to allowing the Santa Ynez Reservoir in the Pacific Palisades to remain empty for almost an entire year. Bass was warned by city officials and agencies days before the impending hurricane like winds that would be hitting the Los Angeles area, but what did she decide to do? Bass decided to travel to Ghana and celebrate the inauguration of Ghana President John Mahama, and to meet the country's first female vice president, Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang. How can a city of almost 4 million people put their lives and trust in such an incompetent and socialist democrat?

On Friday afternoon, January 24, 2025, President Trump and the First Lady, toured the Pacific Palisades and met with families affected by the wildfire devastation. Following the tour, the President met in an open forum round table discussion with Bass, and several state and local officials from Los Angeles to Pasadena, as well as several residents who lost their homes in fires.

President Trump confronted Bass stating that he heard directly from several residents and local agencies that the city is telling homeowners that it would take up to 18 months to get the necessary permits to start rebuilding. President Trump stated he had already cut through the red tape at the federal level and approved federal permits needed for these homeowner to rebuild, and challenged Bass to step up and do the same through her own emergency powers. Bass’s response to President Trump and those in attendance was to continue with the same political rhetoric, stating that she is doing everything she can to cut through the red tape.

In a report by the New York Post local residents confronted Bass with the following comments: [“So, I mean, we were told last night 18 months,” one resident told Bass. “So, if that’s not the answer, Mayor Bass, what is the answer? Because that’s what we were all told last night.” Bass responded that the city and county are doing “everything we can – slashing regulations, expediting everything, so that people can begin the process right away.” “You have to clear the lots. You guys are in charge!” another resident shouted at Bass. “We were told last night by the Army Corps of Engineers that it’d be 18 months. Is it not 18 months?” a third resident asked the mayor. “That’s the answer that we got and that’s what we’re all hanging on.” The exasperated man explained that the people in the community are desperate for a clear answer, noting that how long they decide to rent out other homes and other important arrangements are dependent on the timeline for rebuilding that they get from local officials. “So if you’re telling us now faster, is it six months?” he asked Bass.”]

President Trump immediately responded to Bass stating, “Six months is no good.” Bass then attempted to continue her canned responses under the guise of safety to remove the hazardous material and debris from the home sites and hoped the residents could have access to their home sites soon, maybe in a week. Residents present at the roundtable voiced frustrations, with one woman shouting, "We can't even see our homes right now!"

The President continued, "A week is actually a long time, the way I look at it…" President Trump continued, “What’s hazardous? Everything is completely gone. But the people are willing to clean out their own debris. It doesn’t cost a lot.” Then Bass acknowledged that people “can” move their own debris from affected sites, but Trump didn’t like her vague and political statements telling Bass, “You should let them do it [now] because by the time you hire contractors, it’s gonna be two years.” He continued, “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. He doesn’t want to wait around for seven months until the city hires some demolition contractor that’s gonna charge him $25,000 to do his lot.”

Trump confronted Bass stating, "You have emergency powers, just like I do, and I'm exercising them." Bass continued to argue with the President, claiming she had already implemented measures, but her statements were again simply generic rhetoric which has become common place in municipalities across the nation in these blue liberal run states, conflicting with the possible one-week timeline she briefly mentioned, for residents to access their homes.

On Friday, President Trump said that he was also readying another executive order to ease the flow of water between northern and southern California. "I'm signing an executive order to open up the pumps and valves in the north. We want to get that water pouring down here as quickly as possible, let hundreds of millions of gallons of water flow down into southern California. I tell you who does like it is the fire department. I really strongly recommended this seven years ago. And I think I'm going to just do it." President Trump continued, “[Federal] Permits will be waived to help rebuild Los Angeles….either waive them or give them so rapidly, it's going to be essentially the same thing.”

Another official spoke suggesting to President Trump that there should be a representative from the Federal level and an oversight committee to insure that the Federal Funds being allocated to the State are being utilized correctly and efficiently. The President responded, “That’s actually a good idea.” By the end of the discussion, President Trump appointed Rick Grenell (former Ambassador to Germany during First Trump Administration) to oversee the formation of a committee and possibly head the oversight.

In addition to Newsom’s deliberate negligence in forest management and fire prevention, Newsom pledged in 2024 to fast-track more than half a dozen projects by the end of his term to remove or bypass dams that have blocked the tiny smelt fish from returning to the state's streams and continues to allow the dumping of millions of gallons of clean water from the Pacific Northwest run off into the Pacific Ocean rather than harnessing it for the farmers and driest areas of California.

At a press conference in Los Angeles in September 2024, Trump said, "The water is cut off upstate, up in the north, you know that, and the water in order to protect a certain little tiny fish called a smelt. They send millions and millions of gallons of water out to the Pacific Ocean way up north -- never even gets close to here," "You have no water down here.” “[But} you have the canals -- the reason you have no water is because Gavin Newsom didn't want to do it," he added.

On several Truth Social Postings on January 9, 2025, then President –Elect Trump posted, "Governor Gavin Newscum should immediately go to Northern California and open up the water main, and let the water flow into his dry, starving, burning State, instead of having it go out into the Pacific Ocean. It ought to be done right now, NO MORE EXCUSES FROM THIS INCOMPETENT GOVERNOR. IT'S ALREADY FAR TOO LATE!” In another post he said “Fire is spreading rapidly for 3 days — ZERO CONTAINMENT. Nobody has ever seen such failed numbers before! Gross incompetence by Gavin Newscum and Karen Bass….And Biden’s FEMA has no money — all wasted on the Green New Scam! L.A. is a total wipeout!!! He is the blame for this. One of the best and most beautiful parts of the United States of America is burning down to the ground. It's ashes, and Gavin Newscum should resign. This is all his fault!!!”

In President Trump's first term, he signed a memorandum redirecting millions of gallons of water to farmers in the Central Valley and Southern California, pumping it out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, which Newsome of course refused to sign. And the new state regulations limited the amount of water pumped from the San Joaquin River Delta in order to protect the smelt fish, which Trump has said would have prevented the wildfires. President Trump went on to state, "Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way.”

Californians continue to vote for more and more funding to be given to these important services to better the State, but the mismanagement and misappropriation of these funds is clearly evident. The public has continued to be misled on the funding and management of these basic protective and emergency services, so where has the money from the enormous state budget and continued allocation of funds gone? Mostly to DEI and miscellaneous projects that the Californians did not vote for.

When will Californian’s finally get enough of the corrupt democrat, socialist machine that runs the State. From open borders, to rampant crime and soaring homelessness, to lack of allocation of funding for basic fire, water, utility, and emergency services. This state is run by a handful of greedy socialists who would rather spend taxpayers funding on DEI projects than forest management and water distribution. Have you had enough? Demand accountability and in the next State Elections, not only show up and Vote for common sense Conservative Republicans and make California RED again, but we need to win by another overwhelming majority so the elections cannot continue to be rigged by the left (which has been their MO for many decades). Make California Great Again!