What Trump told me in the Oval Office about the – Latest News
Last week, I walked into the Oval Office and did one thing too few California leaders are keen to do: I sat down with President Donald J. Trump and advocated straight for the people I symbolize.
There was no press release drafted in advance, or press conferences afterward to attain political factors. This was simply a direct, candid dialog about devastation nonetheless overwhelming our communities — 16 months after hurricane-force winds fueled wildfires that tore by way of LA County and upended hundreds of lives in a matter of hours.
While some in this state have made a sport of Trump-bashing — which the California Post’s editorial board known as out simply a few days in the past — I selected a totally different path. I selected to go to Washington and do my job.
The households in the unincorporated city of Altadena don’t need political theater. They simply need outcomes.
From left, Mayor Karen Bass, President Donald Trump and Supervisor Kathryn Barger in the Oval workplace.
A drone view exhibits staff cleansing particles from destroyed properties for residents of the Eaton Fire in Altadena, March 10, 2025. REUTERS
As the LA County supervisor representing Altadena, I see up close a neighborhood that’s a mirror image of our broader American society. More than 40,000 residents call it home — a neighborhood of working households, retirees, small business homeowners, and multi-generational households.
Some are well-resourced and lots of usually are not. I symbolize a lot of households dwelling paycheck to paycheck. Nearly all shared one factor in common earlier than the wildfires: They owned properties that represented stability, security, and a future for his or her kids. For many, it was heartbreakingly gone in a matter of hours.
Now, more than a 12 months later, our catastrophe restoration information inform a story that ought to concern each Californian and make each member of Congress uncomfortable in his or her seat.
According to the Department of Angels’ newest “Community Voices: LA Fire Recovery Report,” which surveyed 2,443 wildfire survivors, more than seven in 10 residents from fire-impacted communities have nonetheless not returned to their properties.
Nearly half, 48%, have depleted a good portion of their financial savings. Another 43% have taken on debt simply to outlive.
The two high obstacles to rebuilding are hovering prices and the paralyzing uncertainty round insurance coverage payouts.
Supervisor Kathryn Barger proudly serves the residents of the fifth District, which incorporates 20 cities and 83 unincorporated communities in the Antelope, San Gabriel, San Fernando, Crescenta, and Santa Clarita Valleys. LA County
These usually are not cold or summary statistics. These findings replicate the lived actuality and struggling of middle-class households who did the whole lot proper — they paid their premiums faithfully for years, adopted the guidelines — and are actually navigating delayed claims, lowball estimates, revolving adjusters, and itemization lists so difficult that even attorneys battle to decipher them.
The insurance coverage system has failed them, and a few banks have compounded the ache.
I spoke candidly about all of this in the Oval Office. My advocacy was fueled by actual tales of displaced survivors I’ve met during neighborhood walks or in grocery store aisles, constituents who’ve shared the gauntlet of roadblocks stopping them from rebuilding. The tales of mortgage corporations holding insurance coverage payouts are gut-wrenching and infuriating.
My coronary heart rejoiced when President Trump expressed to me his clear assist for serving to LA County secure the federal financial assets needed for restoration. He understands that our communities don’t need handouts; they need a hand up. He has already directed his administration to strain the insurance coverage corporations to pay what they owe.
When the president of the United States publicly calls out companies that deserted survivors in their darkest hour, that’s a massive deal. That variety of engagement issues, as a result of accountability is a key driver of change.
But right here is a laborious reality: Presidential assist alone will not be enough. The assets that wildfire survivors urgently need in the end depend upon congressional motion. Appropriations are a accountability of Congress, and up to now, the response has not matched the scale or urgency that this disaster calls for.
The president has made his place clear. Now, Congress should do the similar.
That is why I can be returning to Washington to fulfill with members of Congress — Republicans and Democrats, from California and throughout the nation — to make the case that what occurred in Altadena will not be an remoted occasion. It is an element of a broader sample of disasters that communities nationwide are confronting with inadequate assets and delayed assist.
There is motive to consider that progress and collaboration is feasible. During final week’s assembly, LA Mayor Karen Bass and I — leaders from totally different events — sat facet by facet in the Oval Office, united by our shared responsibility to the people who elected us to public service.
If native leaders can come along with a singular objective, Congress can as effectively.
I wish to be clear: The households of Altadena usually are not asking for charity. They constructed their lives by way of a long time of work, invested in their properties as their American dream that harbored security and had been a tangible legacy for his or her kids and generations to return. They deserve motion that displays the urgency of their state of affairs.
Not subsequent 12 months or after the subsequent election cycle. Now.
Kathryn Barger is the supervisor for the fifth district of LA County, representing 2 million people.
