Overview

• Trump cited Gov. Gavin Newsom’s “incompetence” and criticized California’s forest management when announcing the hold on federal wildfire relief funds.
• He likened California’s blazes to those in Austria, prompting the Austrian agriculture minister to deny that the country suffers from “exploding trees.”
• Gov. Newsom said Trump withdrew National Guard units tasked with forest fire prevention and redeployed them to Los Angeles to manage protests.
• California has filed a federal lawsuit accusing the administration’s takeover of the National Guard of being unlawful.
• The state has requested $40 billion in federal wildfire relief, a sum now blocked by the political standoff.