Biden approved LA wildfire aid. But Trump will control spending.

By Thomas Frank, Scott Waldman | 01/14/2025 07:04 AM EST

A massive Los Angeles rebuilding effort will be shaped by the president-elect who disrupted the release of disaster aid to Democratic areas during his first term.

Then-President Donald Trump speaks during a briefing on wildfires in California in 2020.

Then-President Donald Trump speaks during a briefing on wildfires in California in 2020. FEMA gave the state $4 billion following eight blazes between 2017 and 2021, FEMA records show. Six of the wildfires occurred when Trump was president. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

President-elect Donald Trump will have wide authority over Los Angeles’ recovery from the wildfires that have decimated areas of the city — even though President Joe Biden approved disaster aid in the final days of his term.

Trump’s control is raising fears among California officials including Gov. Gavin Newsom that the incoming president will delay or block rebuilding from a disaster that is expected to be one of the costliest in U.S. history.

Newsom has been publicly warring with Trump, whose approval he will need for billions of dollars in federal funding to help Los Angeles County recover from wildfires that have burned 40,000 acres and destroyed 3,200 buildings.

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“The president has all the authority in the world to do what he wants to do,” said Peter Gaynor, who ran the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Trump’s first term.

Although Biden declared major disaster status for Los Angeles County, he approved federal aid only to help pay for short-term costs such as debris cleanup and emergency protection. Governors must request disaster assistance.

“The reality of it is that Biden approved only categories A and B,” Gaynor said, referring to FEMA disaster aid for emergency protection and debris removal. “In the seven days we have left [in Biden’s presidency], I doubt that California is going to submit anything past A and B.”

FEMA has been crucial to California wildfire recovery. The agency gave the state $4 billion following eight blazes between 2017 and 2021, FEMA records show. Six of the wildfires occurred when Trump was president.

Biden did not approve aid for long-term repairs to roads, water plants, public utilities and parks. It’s unclear whether Newsom requested long-term aid, which governors usually ask for after a weather-related event has ended and officials can calculate the damage.

“Typically, that is what happens,” said Elizabeth Zimmerman, who ran FEMA’s disaster response office in the Obama administration. “You give [states] what they immediately need. You want the emphasis to be on emergency protective measures so they know [the states] will get paid back.”

“Anything that isn’t declared or included by Jan. 20 — then [Trump] has control over what gets added,” said Zimmerman, a senior executive adviser at IEM disaster consultants.

Biden also approved FEMA aid to help Los Angeles County residents pay for some emergency expenses.

In addition to approving or denying new aid requests, Trump could scrutinize reimbursement requests that California submits to FEMA for the short-term aid that Biden approved. The White House Office of Management and Budget reviews any reimbursement request to FEMA for a “large” project, defined as costing more than $1.06 million.

“When I was at FEMA and we had big projects from [Hurricane] Katrina, the White House was very involved. OMB is looking at the dollars. They want to know what the project is, the cost, and validate that it’s eligible,” Zimmerman said.

“OMB can definitely delay a project,” Zimmerman added.

During Trump’s first term, the budget office delayed billions of dollars in disaster aid to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017, a federal investigation found. Trump has named his former OMB director, Russell Vought, to the same job in his upcoming administration. A Senate confirmation hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.

Trump also withheld or delayed disaster aid on other occasions. Trump did not approve a wildfire request from Newsom until his own aides showed him that many Republicans lived in the damaged areas.

While campaigning in California in October, Trump pledged to withhold wildfire aid to the state to extract water policy concessions from state leaders.

‘The rhetoric is very familiar’

In recent days, Trump has blamed Biden and Newsom — whom he called “Newscum” — for “gross incompetence and mismanagement” that he argued led to the wildfires.

“The rhetoric is very familiar and it’s increasingly acute. And obviously we all have reason to be pretty concerned about it,” Newsom, a Democrat, said Friday on the Pod Save America podcast.

Gaynor, the former FEMA administrator, downplayed the rhetoric between Trump and Newsom.

“It won’t stop President Trump from doing the right thing,” Gaynor said. “He has given Gov. Newsom everything he wanted behind closed doors.”

It could be months before Newsom seeks additional FEMA money for rebuilding. Officials in the state would draft a request with help from FEMA and submit it to the White House for OMB scrutiny and presidential approval.

“It’s pretty clear that whatever the state submits to the president in the next round is going to be pretty substantial. Could the president not approve it? I guess in theory he could,” Gaynor said. “But I’ve never seen it done that way. If there’s a legitimate request by a governor, it’s been approved.”

Trump has not named a candidate to replace FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, a Biden appointee.

Criswell has named as acting administrator Tony Robinson, a nonpolitical FEMA veteran who oversees agency operations in Texas and four surrounding states.

Republicans in Congress are considering forcing California to change its forest management policies before being eligible for future disaster aid. Congress could approve new disaster funds as soon as March and put conditions on eligibility.

On Monday, House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana — a perennially peril-prone state — said he supports putting “conditions” on disaster aid to California for the wildfires.

Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a Republican, told Newsmax on Monday that California should not receive any aid without policy changes, though he said he empathized with Republican voters in the state.

“They don’t deserve anything, to be honest with you, unless they show us they’re gonna make some changes,” Tuberville said.

The Los Angeles wildfires could grow this week amid low humidity and high winds, FEMA’s director of response operations, Jeremy Greenberg, said Monday.

“It’s going to set up another 24 to 36 hours where there’s likely to be more outbreaks,” Greenberg said.