'We're going to get it fixed', Trump vows to help LA after touring wildfire zone

President Donald Trump visited Los Angeles Friday to see the areas devastated by the recent wildfires.

The president and First Lady Melania Trump were greeted at LAX by Gov. Gavin Newsom

The two men shook hands and hugged once on the tarmac. 

"We want to get it fixed, we want to get the problem fixed and there will be some ways. It's like you got hit by a bomb," President Trump said to Newsom and reporters. 

Newsom then thanked the president for visiting LA.

"You were there for us during COVID, I don’t forget that, and I have all the expectations that we’ll be able to work together to get this speedy recovery," Newsom said. 

Their interaction Friday was a stark difference to how the two political leaders have spoken about each other in the past. 

Trump has been vocal about his disapproval of the way Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass handled the fire response. Earlier this week, he threatened to withhold federal disaster funds for Los Angeles, and prior to arriving in LA, the president said he wanted the city to first release its water and implement voter ID. 

RELATED: Trump demands two things for LA: Voter ID and to release the water

However, once the two met, Trump repeatedly said "we are going to get it fixed."

"A tremendous number of lives have been affected, a lot of real estate has been affected. No one has probably ever seen anything like this before, you can almost say since the Second World War. Nothing like this has happened. And we’re going to get it fixed, get it permanently fixed so it can't happen again. They are going to need a lot of federal help," the president added. 

Tour of Palisades 

President Trump boarded Marine One helicopter and took an aerial tour of the Palisades Fire zone. After the tour, he and Melania walked along Sunset Boulevard, a section of street lined with destroyed homes. They were accompanied by personnel from the Los Angeles Fire Department and spoke with two Palisades homeowners. 

As they continued to walk along Sunset, Trump could be heard saying, "Unbelievable. It's really not believable."

They both then greeted firefighters at Station 69 and thanked them for their service. 

"It was an honor to be with your firemen before, and your policemen. We met some great people. And these are people that are leaders, and they're just fantastic group of people. And they were very brave. I want to tell you, fire people are so well thought of. You had big fires and it was hard to put them out, but, boy, were they brave. They were really fighting against a tough thing. And everybody in the country knows that," Trump stated. 

Trump meets with local leaders

Trump met with Mayor Bass, LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley, County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, and several other local and state political leaders during a roundtable meeting Friday afternoon after touring the Pacific Palisades. 

During the meeting, Trump declared a national emergency and announced that he'd be signing an executive order to open the pumps and valves in California.

"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. And that'll be a big benefit to you," he said. 

Trump also said he plans to override the Coastal Commission.

In the past, Trump and even local residents have said that the city and state's water mismanagement helped fuel the fires. 

The president said everyone needs to work together to help rebuild parts of Los Angeles and said the federal government is supporting the city and state 100%. 

"I'm going to be the president that's going to help you fix it, because he [Biden] would not have been able to help you fix it," Trump said.

"I've had so many calls from developers and they want to come and they don't want anything. They just want to come in and help and they really know how to get things done and get things built. I would ask that, the local officials, because we're going to wave just about essentially wave all federal permits. We're going to have you go very quickly because a federal permit can take ten years. We're not going to do that."

Wildfire Recovery Aid 

On Thursday, Newsom signed a bill freeing up $2.5 billion in aid for wildfire recovery. The state is hoping to receive federal aid to cover that cost. Before he left office, President Joe Biden said that the federal government would cover 100% of the disaster response costs

On Friday, after Trump's roundtable meeting with officials, Californias Senators, Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, issued a joint statement, speaking out against Trump and other Republicans' calls to have any federal aid to California come with conditions.

"Let us be clear — leveraging disaster aid as a bargaining chip runs in stark contrast to how both Democrats and Republicans have responded to natural disasters for decades," the statement read. "Natural disasters don’t discriminate between blue states or red states. And Americans should be able to count on our support to recover and rebuild in the wake of these tragedies, no matter what state they call home."

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WildfiresDonald J. TrumpGavin NewsomPoliticsLos Angeles CountyNews