Trump to Visit California in Wake of Fires

LOS ANGELES — President Donald Trump plans to travel to California on Saturday to tour the damage and meet with those affected by the wildfires that have ravaged the state.

The visit will come a week after he blamed state officials for the destructive blazes, erroneously attributing the cause of the fires to poor forest management and threatening to withhold financial payments to the state. But he has since praised the state’s efforts, praising the firefighters’ “incredible courage” and promising federal assistance.

The president has visited the state just once since he was elected, preferring instead to attack its leaders and policies from a distance.

“There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor,” he wrote on Twitter over the weekend, as firefighters were still battling back flames on both ends of the state. “Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!”

The statement drew a backlash from firefighters, experts and residents who were watching their homes being devoured by the infernos. Gov. Jerry Brown of California, who has frequently clashed with the president over climate change and other issues, forcefully responded to the attack by calling the fires the “new abnormal.” He added that those who deny human contribution to climate change are “definitely contributing to the tragedy.”

Brown has called for a “major disaster declaration” from the White House. Trump responded Tuesday, saying that the federal government was prepared to help and praising firefighters for doing an “incredible job” at fighting the wildfires.

It is unclear just how the president will be received in the state where he is widely derided by public officials, including some from his own party.