President Donald Trump is scheduled to surround himself mostly with Republicans who echo his forest and water management critiques of California during his trip to Los Angeles on Friday afternoon. But he’s also bringing the top federal forest official — a holdover from the Biden administration with years of California experience.
Trump tapped U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore, whom former President Joe Biden named to his post in 2021, to accompany him in Los Angeles. Trump initial guest list doesn’t include Gov. Gavin Newsom or California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot, Moore’s state-level counterpart, who had a showdown with Trump about the role of climate change in wildfires in 2020.
Moore has been playing a role in helping manage the federal response to the fires since they started two weeks ago, bridging Trump’s inauguration. While Forest Service chief isn’t a political appointment, it typically changes over with changes in administration.
Moore, an agency veteran, previously ran the Forest Service’s operations in California. He has increased the agency’s active forest management, including prescribed fire, but has been hampered by deep budget gaps that forced the agency to stop hiring seasonal workers.
Biden — who emphasized at a Jan. 13 briefing on the fires the need for “Congress to step up to provide funding” for recovery — asked Moore whether he was “hearing any misinformation that’s going out, false assertions that are being made about the state of the effort to fight the fire.”
Moore highlighted rumors about how the fires started, rather than ones blaming California officials for forest and water management practices.
“Well, I mean, there’s always rumors with large fires like this, Mr. President,” Moore said, according to a transcript. “And one of the things that everybody wants to know is how did these fires start. And until the team of investigators conclude their investigations, we don’t really know. And so, there’s a lot of speculation out there about how these fires started, but there’s no proof to validate a lot of these rumors that we’re hearing.”
Also attending the briefing will be Edward Ring, director of water and energy policy at the California Policy Center, an anti-union think tank. Ring, who described himself to the Los Angeles Times as a moderate Republican and Trump supporter in 2017, recently argued in a piece for his center’s website that Newsom and the state Legislature should “radically deregulate the activities of timber harvesting, mechanical thinning, grazing, and controlled burns.” He also argued California should reverse drought restrictions on urban water use to avoid future urban conflagrations.
Six Republican and two Democratic House members will also be accompanying Trump.
Democratic Reps. George Whitesides, a newly-elected former space tech CEO steeped in wildfire policy and technology issues whose Santa Clarita district is the site of the currently burning Hughes Fire, and Brad Sherman, who represents the Pacific Palisades area.
Whitesides is a co-sponsor of the Fix Our Forests Act, a bipartisan measure that would streamline forest thinning and boost other wildfire prevention and that passed the House on Thursday with large Republican support and mixed Democratic support. Sherman voted yes after voting no last year on the same measure.
Republican Reps. Jay Obernolte from San Bernardino County, Vince Fong from Bakersfield, Kevin Kiley from Rocklin, Darrell Issa from eastern San Diego County, Young Kim from Orange County and Tom McClintock from the central Sierra Nevada are also scheduled to attend the emergency briefing.
Fong has championed the cause of Central Valley farmers who want to see more water sent their way from Northern California’s rivers — a topic that is now fueling Trump’s demands for changes to the state and federal water systems as a condition of sending disaster aid to Los Angeles.
Kiley and McClintock have long argued for more active forest management for their forested, fire-prone districts. Kim has said policy conversations tied to conditioning disaster aid should come later and aid should not be delayed. All three also supported the Fix Our Forests Act.
Also scheduled to attend the briefing are Richard Grenell, the presidential envoy for special missions with a home in Manhattan Beach and Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, a Republican who represents Altadena and has vowed to work with Trump to secure funding. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is also on the list.
Trump is also scheduled to tour the damage in Pacific Palisades with first lady Melania Trump, Los Angeles Fire Department officials and local homeowners.