Trump to visit Los Angeles today to survey Palisades Fire damage, pushes to withhold aid

LOS ANGELES -- President Donald Trump will tour damage caused by wildfires in Los Angeles on Friday as he continues to feud with California Gov. Gavin Newsom over his handling of the disaster and federal aid.

According to his schedule, he will first get an aerial tour of the Palisades Fire zone then he'll meet with several residents and some L.A. city fire officials.

Following that meeting, there's going to be a briefing and a roundtable discussion at a local fire station with L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger and other officials.

Earlier on Friday, Trump made a stop in North Carolina, which was hit by Hurricane Helene in September.

When speaking to reporters at Asheville Regional Airport where he was meeting with supporters and local officials about the recovery from the hurricane, Trump said FEMA "has been a very big disappointment."

Trump said of the agency: "It's very bureaucratic. And it's very slow. Other than that, we're very happy with them."

He did not offer clear details on what he would replace it with, indicated he wants to move more of the disaster management responsibility to the states. That was a key priority of the conservative 'Project 2025" written by Trump's supporters, including some who've since joined his administration.

"A governor can handle something very quickly," Trump said.

Trump targets California water policy as he prepares to tour LA fire damage

As Trump prepares to tour wildfire damage, he's zeroing in on one of his frequent targets for criticism: State water policy.

Since the fires broke out Jan. 7, Trump has used social media and interviews to accuse the state of sending too much water to the Pacific Ocean instead of south toward Los Angeles and highlighted how some hydrants ran dry in the early hours of the firefight in Pacific Palisades.

In the first hours of his second term, Trump called on federal officials to draft plans to route more water to the crop-rich Central Valley and densely populated cities in the southern part of the state. Two days later he threatened to withhold federal disaster aid unless California leaders change the state's approach on water.

California officials have repeatedly refuted Trump's assertions.

Trump's claims that measures to protect the delta smelt, an endangered fish, upstate affected L.A.'s water supply is false, according to Ashley Overhouse, a California water policy adviser for the nonprofit conservation organization Defenders of Wildlife.

Overhouse told ABC News that even the most protective regulations for delta smelt, during former President Barack Obama's administration, accounted for only about 1.2% of additional outflow.

On Thursday, the House passed the Fix Our Forests Act, a bipartisan measure that's intended to help prevent catastrophic wildfires and provide proper forest management as California continues.

The bill provides fire departments information about how much and when they will get reimbursed for wildfire costs, supports post-fire recovery activities, assesses and helps better predict fires in high-risk areas and states through data, expedites environmental reviews to reduce planning times and costs for critical forest management and establishes an interagency center to help state and local governments.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.