Trump to California: Don’t count on me to help you out

Donald J. Trump appears to be laying down a clearly defined marker to residents of states that voted for Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2016 or are governed by politicians of the party other than Trump’s Republican Party.

It is this: Don’t count on the president of the United States to offer words of empathy or support in the event of monumental natural disasters, let alone statements of unqualified federal assistance to help you fight those disasters.

You see, Trump is in a war of Twitter words with California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The president is excoriating Newsom over the state’s forest management policy, which Trump says is the reason that wildfires have exploded across the state.

Trump and Newsom are political foes. They might even be called “enemies.” Newsom’s state happened, I should say, to vote for Clinton by a huge margin in her losing bid to Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

The rhetoric Trump is leveling at California’s elected leadership is not the kind of thing he says to those in, say, Texas or Louisiana or Mississippi, Alabama or Florida. Hurricanes have savaged those states since Trump took office. They all voted for Trump in 2016.

Trump, though, seems to get a bur under his saddle when tragedy strikes California.

I guess I should point out that Donald Trump has emerged as the Climate Change Denier in Chief, calling the issue a “hoax,” despite scientific evidence that suggests that climate change is responsible for the huge fires that are erupting with more frequency and ferocity than ever.

Yes, Trump did say in one of his weekend tweets that the firefighters are doing a “great” job. Then he tees it up against Newsom, saying he should insist on clearing forest floors more frequently and should make sure the state has plenty of water to pour on the fires.

I just find this back-and-forth between the president and the governor of one our states — whose residents are fleeing for their lives ahead of devastating fire — to be unbecoming in the extreme.

There once was a time when the federal government stepped up to lend a much-needed hand to American citizens in distress. Please tell me those days are not gone forever.