ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl immediately cast doubt on Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom after he claimed he gets along “extraordinarily well” with President Donald Trump during an interview.
Since President Trump returned to office in January, he and Newsom have repeatedly criticized each other in the media and online. Karl asked Newsom during an interview on Wednesday to describe his February meeting with the president at the White House, which took place without press access.
“We get along, you may not believe this, extraordinarily well,” Newsom said. “And have for years.”
“I have a hard time believing that,” Karl immediately pushed back before swaying. “Actually, that is Trump though, isn’t it?”
Newsom traveled to Washington, D.C., in February to meet with President Trump and Democratic members of California’s delegation to discuss disaster relief for the January Los Angeles County wildfires. In a press release, Newsom’s office described the meeting as “very productive,” saying the two discussed the “critical need for unconditional disaster aid for survivors.”
The Democrat governor approved $50 million in state funds for legal battles against the Trump administration and federal immigration services on Feb. 7, days after the meeting.
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Newsom went on to tell Karl that Trump “doesn’t want interpersonal confrontation,” referencing the president’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, where the two were seen in a heated exchange.
“But he’ll attack in public when you’re not there, and then he’ll be very nice to you when it’s — ” Karl said before Newsom jumped in.
“Yeah,” Newsom responded. “And then he’ll lie about things. He’s just, look, this is something altogether different. There’s nothing, except it’s not. It’s more of the same. I mean, there’s just, there’s pathological people in our history going back to the beginning of damn time, and we’re experiencing it in real time, and in real time, we’re losing our country.”
Before making the statement, Newsom criticized President Trump and his policies, claiming he hadn’t received federal help following the Pacific Palisades and Altadena wildfires.
Thousands of homes were destroyed and hundreds were displaced in the wake of the fires, leading to backlash against Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass over their handling of the crisis.
Pacific Palisades residents have since joined a lawsuit accusing the state and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) of running a “campaign of misinformation and misrepresentation” to “conceal its responsibility” for the unprecedented destruction.
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