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President Donald Trump vowed during Thursday’s Cabinet meeting that he would block federal funding from going towards low-income housing in the Pacific Palisades, an affluent area in Los Angeles that was devastated by last year’s fires.
“They want to build a low-income housing project right in the middle of everything in Palisades, and I’m not going to allow it to happen,” Trump said. “I’m not going to let these people destroy the value of their houses. I built a lot of low-income housing — I made a lot of money building low-income housing… We’re not going to allow this guy to build a low-income housing project on top of everything else in the middle of that mess that was created by the fact that they didn’t allow water to come down from the Pacific Northwest.”
Trump has been critical of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ fire response, and he did not hold back in Thursday’s Cabinet meeting.
TRUMP AIMS TO FAST-TRACK LA REBUILD WITH EXECUTIVE ORDER TO BYPASS CALIFORNIA RED TAPE
The president noted that the federal government was able to get permits for people looking to rebuild their homes before the city and state were able to do so. He then tasked Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin with ensuring that those in need of permits obtain them. He also asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to ensure that California did not get financing for the proposed project.
Newsom’s office pushed back on the idea that the funds would solely go toward affordable housing in the Pacific Palisades, rebuking a July article by Just The News.
“This funding is not limited to the Palisades. It supports affordable housing in multiple wildfire-impacted communities, including Altadena,” the governor’s office wrote in a July post on X.
“The Governor has taken steps to make rebuilding easier, not harder — including suspending certain replacement mandates in the coastal zone to allow for faster recovery. These actions provide flexibility to local communities while also ensuring California doesn’t lose the affordable housing it already had,” Newsom’s office added.
LA MAYOR CALLS WILDFIRE RESPONSE ONE OF THE ‘FASTEST’ REBUILDING EFFORTS IN CALIFORNIA HISTORY
In July 2025, six months after the fires, Newsom and the California Department of Housing and Community Development committed $101 million “to help rapidly rebuild critically needed, affordable multifamily rental housing in the fire-devastated Los Angeles region.”
“Thousands of families — from Pacific Palisades to Altadena to Malibu — are still displaced, and we owe it to them to help. The funding we’re announcing today will accelerate the development of affordable multifamily rental housing so that those rebuilding their lives after this tragedy have access to a safe, affordable place to come home to,” Newsom said in a July statement.
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The announcement said that the funding being allocated for the rebuilding efforts included grants for infrastructure needed for disaster-resilient housing, low-interest loans to build new affordable multifamily units and reserve funds to ensure the projects remain financially viable. All projects must stay affordable for 55 years under the initiative.
Fox News Digital reached out to Newsom’s office for comment.
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