Donald Trump is making his first trip as 47th president on Friday, to North Carolina (southeast) and this Democratic stronghold that is California, two states hit by natural disasters which he has made subjects of political brawls.
The most followed part of this trip, which will then take him to Nevada (west), will take place in the large western state whose governor wants to lead the “resistance” against the Republican president, who in return threatened to cut federal aid to fight fires in Los Angeles.
North Carolina was hit in October, in the middle of the presidential election campaign, by Hurricane Helene, which left 104 dead.
The 78-year-old billionaire had virulently criticized the crisis management of President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris, his unsuccessful Democratic rival.
Christy Edwards, 55, saw her craft workshop destroyed. Reached by telephone, she said “hope that with the coming of Trump, we will have more resources, more equipment to clear up.”
– “Abandoned” –
“We were abandoned,” says this fervent supporter of the Republican, who lives in a small isolated valley and whom AFP met shortly after the hurricane.
Donald Trump claimed without evidence that certain areas of the state had been harmed in the organization of relief, because the majority voted Republican.
In the president's sights: FEMA, a federal agency for responding to natural disasters.
This organization “will be the subject of a big discussion shortly, because I would prefer to see the (federated) States take care of their own problems,” said the American president on Wednesday in an interview with the Fox News channel. .
In the same interview, he also repeated his threats against Californian authorities: “I don't think we should give anything to California until they let the water flow from the north to the south” of the State to fight fires in Los Angeles.
-The climate skeptic has repeatedly said that California is running out of water because of Democratic environmental policies that would divert rainwater to protect “useless fish,” claims disputed by experts.
In fact, most of the water used by Los Angeles comes from the Colorado River, and is used primarily by the agricultural sector.
– “Idiot” –
Still, the speed and intensity of the fires have tested firefighting infrastructure and raised questions about the state's preparedness.
According to the press, the president will be greeted when he gets off the plane, as is customary, by the governor of the state Gavin Newsom.
This hope of the Democratic Party is one of the privileged targets of the Republican, who has abused his surname to make it “Newscum” with the word “scum”, meaning “reject”. He also called him an “idiot” in his Wednesday interview.
The governor has positioned himself as one of the great leaders of the opposition against Donald Trump.
“We intend to stand alongside states across the country to defend our Constitution and uphold the rule of law,” he warned the day after the Republican’s victory.
Donald Trump clearly lost in California to Kamala Harris, but made gains in some districts.
The state, with its progressive moral policies and initiatives to combat climate change, has long been in the sights of the hard right.
