What Happened During Trump’s Visit to California?

Let’s take Mr. Newsom first. He is the governor of the state that has been at the vanguard of the resistance to President Trump from his first day in office. Mr. Newsom is well aware of how unpopular Mr. Trump is, but also how distressed many Californians are with Mr. Trump’s denial of climate change and needed to convey that sentiment in their meeting. He had two big complications.

The first was this: California, reeling from the fires and the economic devastation of the coronavirus, needs the help of the federal government and the president in getting millions of dollars in federal aid.

Mr. Trump has threatened repeatedly to cut off funding to the state, and said it was at fault for the devastating wildfires. I asked Jerry Brown, who was Mr. Newsom’s predecessor and one of Mr. Trump’s biggest critics on the environment, whether he would tell the president of his criticism if he were still governor and greeting the president on his visit to California.

[Read the full interview with Jerry Brown.]

Mr. Brown said yes — but taking note of the billions of dollars California needs, said he’d probably wait a few days.

So we saw Mr. Newsom noting their difference on climate change, and suggesting he respected the fact that there was a difference of opinion. It will be interesting to see how that’s going to play in the next few days.

And the second complication?

Mr. Newsom was clearly mindful not to say something that could show up in a Trump campaign commercial or promotional video — which happened the last time the two men met and Mr. Newsom was effusive in his thanks of the president, remarks the president highlighted in a video at the Republican convention.

On one hand, it might have seemed that Mr. Newsom had been played a bit by the president — but on the other, this is a state in crisis and it needs the help from Washington.