Newsom and Trump face off from a distance as Los Angeles fires burn

Advisers to California Gov. Gavin Newsom spent the week monitoring new White House advance staffers’ social media accounts, hoping for clues for where President Donald Trump might be headed when he lands in Los Angeles on Friday afternoon to talk about the wildfire damage.

Advisers to California Gov. Gavin Newsom spent the week monitoring new White House advance staffers’ social media accounts, hoping for clues for where President Donald Trump might be headed when he lands in Los Angeles on Friday afternoon to talk about the wildfire damage. That’s the state of relations as California and the federal government face one of the most expensive natural disasters ever, and perhaps one of the most complex in American history. No one is talking between the Democratic governor’s team and the newly inaugurated president’s, two people on the governor’s team told CNN, though a spokesman for the governor told CNN on Friday that he will head to the airport to greet Air Force One. This is how it’s been: when Newsom sent a letter inviting the then-president-elect to visit California two weeks ago, transition officials confirmed it had been received but never followed up. Basic details aren’t being shared. Forget about setting up negotiations about managing the response, or even just an invitation to be together. It’s hard to move forward when the conversation always starts with Trump referring to “Newscum.”