On Wednesday Trump threatened to withhold aid and repeated a false claim that California Governor Gavin Newsom and other officials had refused to provide water from the northern part of the state to fight the fires. (Reporting by Nandita Bose, writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by David Ljunggren)

The demand further politicized a fragile situation that has left Gov. Gavin Newsom scrambling to respond to the whims of the president — or even to speak with him at all — to secure billions of dollars from the federal government to help Los Angeles fight an ongoing firestorm and rebuild.