A first official visit. This Friday, January 24, American President Donald Trump is going to Los Angeles, hit by the most devastating fires in its history, to assess the damage according to Le Figaro. But this visit raises questions: will the president announce the suspension of federal aid intended for reconstruction? The region, still bereaved by nearly thirty victims, is counting on the aid approved by Joe Biden at the end of his mandate to recover.
However, for several months, Donald Trump has threatened to suspend federal aid granted to California, a progressive bastion that he uses as a political target. The president regularly accuses this Democratic state of having implemented environmental policies responsible, according to him, for poor water management. An assertion contested by experts, but which allows the president to publicly consider imposing conditions to approve any federal aid in the future. He has also just signed a decree ordering his administration not to grant aid to “ sanctuary cities » that protect migrants, such as in Los Angeles, where local police refuse to cooperate with federal authorities in identifying illegal immigrants.
Towards the arrival of rain
In this tense climate, the former president’s return to power arouses anxiety among those who lost everything in the fires. In Altadena, a modest suburb north of Los Angeles, as in Pacific Palisades, a more affluent neighborhood of the city, thousands of ruined buildings must be cleared. Federal aid, approved by Joe Biden for a period of 180 days, is supposed to finance these operations. But local authorities fear that this promise will not be kept, or that Los Angeles will need more to cope with the scale of the destruction.
On the ground, firefighters continue to battle fires, the most recent of which broke out this week near Castaic Lake. Although it is now 36% contained, more than 10,000 hectares of vegetation have been destroyed, without homes being affected. The Pacific Palisades fire, meanwhile, has ravaged more than 23,000 hectares and is 75% contained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire. On Saturday, firefighters are expected to receive support thanks to expected rain over Los Angeles. The weather forecast calls for unrecorded precipitation levels in California for 263 days.
