Newsom Blasts Trump Claims About Wildfire Rebuild: 'LIE'

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T

California Gavin Newsom fired back at a social media post from President Donald Trump in a tweet from his office calling the accusations a "LIE" and another one he posted directly calling the president's claims a "straight up lie."

The president and the California governor have been sparring for several years, with the battle escalating as Newsom has backed a redistricting plan to counter GOP plans in red states and in the online battles in recent months as Newsom's communications team has turned up the volume on Trump, including mocking his well known heavily-capitalized posting style.

Tuesday afternoon, Trump wrote a post directed at Newsom — whom he mocked as "Newscum" — claiming that California was "in the final stages of approval" to build low-income housing in the areas devastated by the Pacific Palisades wildfires, implying that the state government was scheming to push out the people who had owned homes there.

The full post read:

Shockingly, I have just learned, that Gavin Newscum, the Governor of California, is in final stages of approval to build Low Income Housing in Pacific Palisades. How unfair is that to the people that have suffered so much! Newscum allowed their houses to burn by not accepting Hundreds of Millions of Gallons of Water from the Pacific Northwest, and now, the Low Income Housing starts rising long before he gets Permits for California Citizens to rebuild, but long after the Federal Permits were issued. Lee Zeldin, EPA Administrator, and I, as President, have done the job, and produced all Permits long before anybody expected that to happen. Unfortunately, the Governor of California and Mayor Karen Bass failed you. Gavin Newscum's plan to build Low Income Housing (at the Super Luxury Pacific Palisades Fire Site) is what caused the destruction of the Late, Great New York City Mayor John Lindsay's Political Career — and John Lindsay was a Republican.

Newsom's press office fired back in a tweet pinned at the top of the account's profile containing a detailed fact check — along with an insult for Trump.

"Take your dementia meds, grandpa," the post's caption read. "You are making things up again."

Take your dementia meds, grandpa. You are making things up again. https://t.co/L40ONrAK7Upic.twitter.com/RTrHO3TkhO
— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) September 16, 2025

The graphic went line-by-line through Trump's post, labeling six separate claims as a "LIE" in all caps red letters, including denying that there was any effort by the state government to cause the Palisades residential areas to "be rezoned for mass building of low-income apartments."

As governor, Newsom did not even have the power to issue housing permits, the fact-check pointed out; that was a power under the purview of city and county government authorities.

Moreover, Trump's claims he had "done the job" and "produced all Permits" was nonsensical, because "[t]here is no such thing as a federal housing permit," so there was nothing that Trump could have approved.

"[T]hey DO NOT EXIST," the post concluded.

Screenshot via X.

Newsom himself addressed Trump's accusations with a tweet of his own.

"A straight up lie," he wrote.

A straight up lie. pic.twitter.com/DPlonvYaSR
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) September 16, 2025

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