Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger met with President Donald Trump on Wednesday to advocate for federal recovery aid for the 2025 wildfires in Los Angeles.
Bass, whose jurisdiction includes Pacific Palisades, and Barger, who represents Altadena, discussed FEMA assistance, other rebuilding funds and problems around insurance payouts and mortgage relief, with the president and administration officials during the White House visit, according to a statement the pair released afterward. Both sides had kept the meeting secret.
“Our job is to fight for our communities,” Bass and Barger said in the statement. “When it comes to this recovery, our federal partners are essential, and we are grateful for the support of the president.”
Notably absent from the in-person confab was Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), a principal antagonist of the president. In February, soon after Trump appointed Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin to oversee the federal response to the LA wildfires, Zeldin advised local officials to go around the governor if they wanted a better reception from the president. Zeldin said Newsom’s attacks on Trump were hurting their cause and criticized the governor’s request for $33 billion in long-term aid as inflated.
