Two reasons: Cash and political viability, and probably not in that order. Gavin Newsom finds himself in a deep political crisis over the consequences of years-long failures to prioritize core public-safety infrastructure over pet progressive projects. And now he needs Donald Trump to rescue him.
The Wall Street Journal notes that Newsom contradicted Joe Biden’s order on flag display to return them to full staff for the inauguration on Monday. That gesture provided a strange moment of discordance with Newsom’s previous desire to marshal California resources — $50 million, approved by a special session of the legislature as Los Angeles burned — to mount a “resistance” to the incoming Trump administration.
There’s really no mystery to the why. Trump travels to California today to see the disaster personally, and Newsom is now in the position of supplicant…
