Donald Trump is treating California Gov. Gavin Newsom “as his punching bag,” triggering an extraordinary battle between a president and a governor at a time when thousands are suffering and dozens are dying from the wildfires that have ravaged Southern California.

“He’s treating Gavin Newsom as his punching bag before he’s even in office,” political science professor Christian Grose said in an interview.

While the former president and Newsom have frequently sparred in the past, “what’s different here is that Trump is using a natural disaster to turn it into a fight,” Grose said.

Trump has spent days criticizing California Democratic politicians for what he calls their failures to contain the Los Angeles-area wildfires that have burned for a week and claimed 25 lives. The president-elect has also suggested that any federal aid for California should come with conditions, like tying it to the national debt limit.

Newsom has become a frequent target. Trump has blamed him for the wildfires, knocking him online for “gross incompetence” and blamed reports of fire hydrants running dry on Newsom not supporting the diversion of water from the north state into Southern California.

“RELEASE THE WATER, NEWSOM. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?” Trump posted Tuesday on Truth Social.

Newsom’s office pushed back against the claims as “pure fiction.”

Does this matter?

Whether all this political sparring will matter to Californians is the big question. Top Republicans in Washington are considering delaying some federal aid. But disaster relief is flowing to fire victims at the moment, and Trump is unlikely to stop it.

“For Newsom, he’s caught between needing to be an attack dog to protect his image as ‘anti-Trump’ but he’s also aware that he will need Trump to ultimately sign a package to deliver federal emergency relief,” Grose said.

The fight over the fires could be the dynamic going forward between the the governor and the incoming president, with Trump never passing up an opportunity to criticize his liberal foil, according to George Edwards III, a longtime political science professor at Texas A&M University.

“Trump views Newsom as competition,” Edwards said in an interview. “His (Trump’s) favorite tactic is to discredit his opponents, and the easiest way to do that is to claim they’re incompetent.”

Newsom has hit back against critics including Trump, whom he said he would approach with an “open hand.” On Tuesday night, he told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki that the incoming president was “injecting inaccurate information” and politicizing a tragic situation.

“If that’s leadership, I have a different definition,” Newsom said. “What’s not helpful or beneficial ... is these wild-eyed fantasies … that somehow there’s a magical spigot in northern California that just can be turned on, all of a sudden there will be rain or water flowing everywhere.” His office previously debunked Trump’s claim that Newsom refused to sign a “water restoration declaration” in order to protect the endangered Delta smelt fish.

Trump has not responded to the governor’s invitation to come to Los Angeles to meet with first responders and witness the wildfire damage firsthand, according to Newsom’s office.

“As we said in our invite to the President-elect, he needs to come see the catastrophic damage, meet with people who’ve lost their homes, and get the facts instead of spreading misinformation from the sidelines,” spokesperson Izzy Gardon said in a statement.

Republican critics

There is some evidence to suggest Trump may succeed in forcing greater scrutiny of California’s policies and need for more funds. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters this week he personally believed “there should be conditions” on aid to California.

In Sacramento, California Republicans claimed a minor victory this week after Newsom expanded the special legislative session to include wildfire response, which they had been advocating. Democrats also backed away from tying wildfire aid to legislation shoring up legal resources to fight the incoming White House, with Newsom saying he would not condition “aid on any other priorities.”

Grose likened the president-elect’s blaming of Newsom and local officials to the political fights between the Bush administration and Louisiana officials in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“Newsom has somewhat less leverage with the second Trump presidency,” Grose said, referring to the state delegation’s slightly diminished congressional clout. “But it is truly a natural disaster deserving of aid. It’s not a good start to the presidency to ignore a major disaster.”

There’s a “lot of pressure” to get emergency aid quickly appropriated after a disaster, Edward said, pointing to the recent hurricanes in western North Carolina. “It’s impossible to please everyone” in natural disasters, he said. Still, politicians have come under pressure in recent years to support certain legislation in exchange for receiving disaster aid.

“It’s possible Trump could succeed in tying conditions to aid,” Edwards said. “Some Republicans are inclined to support whatever he wants.”

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