As L.A. Fires Rage, Trump and Newsom’s Hostilities Resurface

California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, and President-elect Donald J. Trump have long feuded. Can the rancor be set aside to help a devastated city recover?

As fires raged around Los Angeles, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Democrat of California, arrived at a Santa Monica fire station on Wednesday to meet with President Biden carrying a printout of his state’s request for a major disaster declaration.

The governor did not want to leave anything to chance, or to Mr. Biden’s successor, according to two people briefed on the episode: President-elect Donald J. Trump was already hurling blame at Mr. Newsom for the devastating blazes.

Mr. Biden quickly approved the declaration; the next day, he promised that the federal government would cover all of California’s costs in responding to the fires for roughly six months. “We are with you,” Mr. Biden pledged from the White House. “We are not going anywhere.”

Of course, the reality is that Mr. Biden is going away in just days, leaving Mr. Newsom to navigate the tricky politics of federal disaster relief and an enormous rebuilding project with a hostile incoming president who has heckled him with personal insults, is calling on him to resign and has never been shy about using natural disasters as political cudgels.

Mr. Newsom, who has feuded with Mr. Trump on and off for years, has emerged as an irresistible early target for the president-elect in his return to power. He is one of the best known Democrats in the country, the outspoken head of the nation’s most populous blue state, and has fashioned himself as a leader of a new wave of opposition to Mr. Trump.

On Friday, Mr. Newsom sent Mr. Trump a pointed letter inviting him to “see the devastation firsthand” and visit Los Angeles. “We must not politicize human tragedy or spread disinformation from the sidelines,” he wrote.