Chuck Todd: Rebuilding Los Angeles will (and should) be a national priority
Just days before Washington officially transitions back to the Trump era, the folks trying to plot out a successful first six months of his second term have a big new problem they will have to deal with and embrace — rebuilding America’s second-largest city.
Just days before Washington officially transitions back to the Trump era, the folks trying to plot out a successful first six months of his second term have a big new problem they will have to deal with and embrace — rebuilding America’s second-largest city.
One of the hallmarks of every presidency I’ve covered is how the best-laid plans of a new (or newly re-elected) president have all run aground fairly quickly amid unforeseen crises. Whether it’s because of an economic collapse, a pandemic, a hurricane that nearly erases a major city, a terrorist attack in the nation’s largest city, an oil leak at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico or, now, out-of-control fires encroaching on an enormous urban population, presidencies rarely go to plan.
As some Republicans in Congress talk about imposing conditions on relief money to California, Donald Trump is using his pre-inauguration bully pulpit to repeatedly blame the destruction on California Democrats. The ultimate goal, if there is one, may be to try to desensitize his base to any political consequences for not fully helping out Southern California. But it’s not a tactic that will be successful once he’s president. Not fully helping will easily boomerang on him. It isn’t just Democrats who have had their houses burned down, but plenty of Republicans, as well.
Rating: 5