Trump Threatens To Withhold Disaster Aid From California

LOS ANGELES, CA — In a sprawling speech at his golf course in Rancho Palos Verdes, less than a mile from a slow-moving landslide threatening entire neighborhoods, Former President Donald Trump said he would decline to send emergency aid for natural disasters in California unless the governor signs "those papers."

Calling Gov. Gavin Newsom "Newscum," Trump told reporters, "The water coming here is dead, and if he doesn’t sign those papers, we won’t give him money to put out all his fires. And if we don’t give him all the money to put out the fires, he’s got problems,” Trump said, according to the Los Angeles Times.

It wasn't immediately clear what the 78-year-old former president referred to when he referenced 'dead water' or 'those papers.' According to the Times, he was responding to a question about helping Americans struggling with natural disasters such as California's ongoing wildfires.

Trump seemed to imply that he would punish Golden State residents if the governor failed to enact his policies.

Newsom was quick to respond.

“Every voter should be made aware of this. @realDonaldTrump just admitted he will block emergency disaster funds to settle political vendettas,” Newsom tweeted. “Today it’s California’s wildfires. Tomorrow it could be hurricane funding for North Carolina or flooding assistance for homeowners in Pennsylvania. Donald Trump doesn’t care about America — he only cares about himself.”

Trump spoke to reporters at the Trump National Golf Course, with the Pacific Ocean as a backdrop on Friday morning, following a Thursday night fundraiser he attended in the Beverly Hills area.

He offered his support for the Rancho Palos Verdes landslide victims and praised local leaders for their handling of the disaster.

"I want to express my support for all of the families affected by the landslides in Rancho Palos Verdes," Trump said. "This area is very solid, but you go a couple of miles down, you'll see something that's pretty amazing. The mountain is moving. And it could be stopped but they need some help from the government. So I hope they get the help...and I want to thank the mayor for the great job he's doing, and tell that to the people, what a great job he's doing."

The majority of Trump's news conference, however, was spent disparaging Vice President Kamala Harris, as Trump repeated many of his long-standing criticisms, most notably his contentions about millions of illegal immigrants flowing over the border.

"I'm here today in California with a very simple message for the American people -- we cannot allow comrade Kamala Harris and the communist left to do to America what they did to California," Trump said. "The state of California is a mess. There's people leaving, and nothing's gonna stop them. They're going to other states, some are going to other countries."

Trump said Harris "destroyed San Francisco and she destroyed the state."

"When you look at the kind of destruction that's taken place, it's all man-made or woman-made destruction. ... It's things that never should have happened, but we're not going to let that happen with four more years of her in the White House."

In a statement, the Harris campaign responded to Trump's news conference, saying, "Donald Trump took his trainwreck on the debate stage straight to California. In a rambling, defensive, often incoherent event to promote his golf course, he yet again showed the country how he is melting down. He said 'nothing was done wrong' in Charlottesville when neo-Nazis marched there, defended hanging out with a 9/11 conspiracy theorist, and doubled down on the conspiracy theories ripping an Ohio community apart. He refused to address his plan to end the Affordable Care Act, ban abortion, and raise middle class taxes by nearly $4,000. Americans are tired of Trump's same old playbook and will reject him this November."

Trump was last in Southern California in June, when he attended a sold- out luncheon event in Newport Beach and an evening event in Beverly Hills.

City News Service and contributed to this report.