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President Donald Trump has recognized Californians, victims of two tragedies, walking in the ashes of a mobile home and a caravan park in a small northern town destroyed by deadly fires and comforting privately of mourners after a massive shooting in a university bar near Los Angeles Angeles.
"It was a tough day when you watched all the deaths from one place to another," Trump said Saturday before returning to Washington.
Trump's visits to northern and southern California following unprecedented fires that killed more than 70 people gave him what he was looking for while flying from an ocean to the sea. Another in a day: an awareness of the desolation at the heart of the Californian murderer. Forest fires.
"We have never seen anything like it in California, we have not seen anything like it yet, it's like total devastation," said Trump as he stood among the ruins of paradise, destroyed by a forest fire called by the president "this monster."
Before returning to Washington, Trump met briefly in an airport hangar with families and first responders affected by the shooting at the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks more than a week ago, making 12 died in what Trump called "a horrible, horrible event". "Journalists and photographers were not allowed to accompany the president to the session, which Trump later described as emotional.
"What can you say if it's so sad to see, they are great people, great families, torn apart," he told reporters. "We just hugged them and kissed them – and everyone, and it was very hot."
He added: "It was tragic and yet, in a sense, it was a very beautiful moment."
Trump had only made one trip as president in California, a deeply democratic and liberal state that he attributed to an overheated double crisis, illegal immigration and electoral fraud. He also disagreed with the state-run Democratic government, but the differences were generally ruled out when Governor Jerry Brown and Governor-elect Gavin Newsom joined Trump to monitor the damage caused by the fires. forest.
"We're going to have to work quickly," Trump said close to the crumbling foundations of Paradise homes and the twisted steel of molten cars. "I hope it will be the last because it was really bad."
Winking at his belief – not shared by all forest scientists – that better forest management practices will reduce future risks, Mr. Trump added, "I think everyone has seen the light and I do not think it will happen again at this point. "
With this bold and perhaps unlikely prediction, Trump spoke of his initial reaction to the fire, the worst in the state's history, in which he seemed to blame local officials and threaten to pull out federal government funds.
A few hours later, and hundreds of miles further south, Trump found similar signs of devastation in the seaside conclave of Malibu, one of southern California's regions ravaged by fires that killed at least three people. The palms were burned and houses burned on a promontory overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
At least 71 people have died in northern California and the authorities are trying to locate more than 1,000 people, though not all of them are missing. More than 5,500 firefighters fought in the fire that covered 590 square kilometers (228 square miles) and was controlled to about 50 percent, officials said.
When asked in heaven if seeing the historic devastation, which stretched for miles and left the neighborhoods destroyed and the fields burned, changed his opinion on climate change, Trump replied: "No.
The President has long expressed his skepticism about the human impact on the climate and has been reluctant to blame a planet for warming the increase in frequency and frequency. 39 intensity of natural disasters.
Wearing a camouflage hat "USA", Trump looked solemnly at the devastation in paradise. Several burned buses and cars were nearby. The trees were burned, their branches bare and twisted. The houses had totally disappeared; there were still foundations, a chimney and, in front of a house, a Mickey Mouse lawn ornament. The fire would have crossed the region at 80 mph.
"It's going to work well, but for the moment, we want to take care of people who are so badly injured," said Trump, visiting what was left of the mobile home of Skyway Villa and its caravan park. He noted "there are areas that you can not even reach at the moment" and the large number of missing people.
"I think people have to really see that to understand it," Trump said.
The president then visited an operations center, met the commanders of the intervention and praised the work of the fire brigade, law enforcement and representatives of the Federal Agency for the Management of Humanitarian Affairs. emergency room.
Trump took a helicopter ride to Chico before going around Paradise. Full coverage of mist and a smell of smoke greeted the president as he arrived at Beale Air Base near Sacramento.
"They are fighting and they are fighting like hell," Trump told the first responders.
He promised that Washington would do its part by assisting the Golden State and urging the Republican Representative of the House, California Representative Kevin McCarthy, Trump's ally and frequent visitor to the White House, to "get to office "to help secure funding.
Trump has long struggled to convey his empathy to the victims of national disasters and tragedies. His first reaction to the fires occurred last week in a tweet that called critics unnecessarily critical and dumb in the face of devastation: "There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires. California, if it's just that forest management is so poor, billions of dollars are given every year, with so many lives lost, all because of poor forest management. "
After the negative reaction to this response, Trump changed gears, expressing words of encouragement to first responders and sympathy for the victims.
Nature and humans are responsible for forest fires, but fire scientists are divided on whether forest management has played a major role. Nature provides dangerous winds that have fueled fires, the state has experienced drought and man-made climate change has resulted in the destruction and drying of shrubs and trees that provide the fuel.
When Trump was asked during an interview broadcast on "Fox News Sunday" whether climate change had played a role in the number of serious fires, he said "maybe that helps a little." The big problem we have is management. "
In Northern California, Trump continued to be skeptical about the impact of climate change on forest fires. Its grip on forests has sometimes been fragile, citing fire prevention efforts in Finland – its climate is very different from that of California – as an example for the Golden State.
When asked if he thought climate change had played a role in the fires, Brown replied, "Yes, yes, and we will let science determine that longer."
A reporter asked if we had discussed climate change with the president, but Trump replied, "We did not talk about it."
A reporter then said, "Obviously, you disagree on this issue." Trump replied in part: "Maybe not as different as people think." Does this happen? Things are changing, and I think the most important thing is that we are doing things, we're going to make things better, we're going to make things a lot better, and it's going to happen as quickly as possible. "
Brown and Newsom said that they welcome the president's visit. Brown suggested they put aside their political differences as it is "time to mobilize for the people of California". A strong advocate of the fight against climate change, the governor drew attention to several causes and said it was necessary to tackle it.
"If you really look at the facts, from a really open point of view, there are a lot of things to consider," Brown said. "The president has come, he has seen and I look forward, in the next few months and beyond, to really understanding this fire threat, the whole issue of drought and all the rest. "It's not a thing, it's a lot of things and I think if we open our minds and look at things, we'll have more."
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