On Politics With Lisa Lerer: California Doesn’t Like Trump. But It May Need Him.

Gov. Gavin Newsom knows that a good relationship with a president he once called on to resign could be crucial to his plans for the state. [Trouble seeing this email? View in browser]( [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( February 25, 2019 | Evening Edition [Lisa Lerer] Hi. Welcome to On Politics, your guide to the day in national politics. I’m Lisa Lerer, your host. Evan Vucci/Associated Press Last January, Gavin Newsom called on President Trump to resign, describing him as “a joke and a racist.” Oh, the changes a year — and a boost to the governor’s mansion — can bring. “That was during a campaign,” Mr. Newsom told me this weekend, saying he couldn’t quite remember what, exactly, he felt Mr. Trump should resign over. “It’s just so indicative of this moment, I couldn’t even tell you. It was 4,623 tweets ago.” I sat down with Mr. Newsom while he was in Washington for an annual conference of governors. Now the governor of California, he acknowledged how important it was that he find a way to work with the president — even one who’s disliked by the majority of voters in his state. As the country’s most populous state, California politics always play an outsized role on the national stage. During the Trump era, it has become the [vanguard of the Democratic Party]( a testing ground for policies, lawsuits and political tactics designed to promote a progressive agenda and undercut the administration. One in eight Americans lives in California. [Two-thirds of residents]( disapprove of the president. But Mr. Newsom needs Mr. Trump — or at least his federal dollars. In November, Mr. Newsom, Mr. Trump and then-Gov. Jerry Brown toured devastation caused by the Camp Fire, which burned most of the town of Paradise, killed more than 80 people and destroyed nearly 14,000 homes. Mr. Trump promised then to work with Mr. Newsom; two months later, the president [threatened to cut off federal aid]( to wildfire victims. So, is it possible for the leader of the “[state of resistance]( who bashed Mr. Trump relentlessly during the campaign, to have a productive relationship with the president? ADVERTISEMENT “I hope so,” Mr. Newsom said. “I don’t know.” The two exchanged little more than pleasantries during a dinner Mr. Trump hosted for governors at the White House last night. “But I’m pursuing that because it’s just it’s too damn important,” he told me. “And the risks are too great to bear.” Over the past week, the relationship between Mr. Trump and California seems to have hit a new low. A day after the state joined 15 others in [filing a lawsuit]( challenging the president’s emergency declaration on the border, the Transportation Department said it was looking into ways to [claw back $2.5 billion in federal funds]( it had already spent on the state’s high-speed rail network. Mr. Trump lashed out on Twitter, [writing]( that California, “the state that has wasted billions of dollars on their out of control Fast Train, with no hope of completion, seems in charge” of the lawsuit. Mr. Newsom fired back, calling the Transportation Department’s move “political retribution.” Then, two days later, the administration said it was ending negotiations with California over the president’s plan to undo Obama-era fuel efficiency standards. The timing of that announcement was awfully “curious,” said Mr. Newsom, who stressed that negotiations over the standards have been largely unproductive for months. But despite Mr. Newsom’s professed desire to work with the president, the politics of the feud could benefit both men. The governor knows that the Democrats who voted him into office crave confrontation with Mr. Trump. And for Republicans, railing on the ills of California has become a [red-meat rallying cry]( citing the state as a symbol of high taxes, liberal social policy and lax immigration enforcement. “We’re America’s coming attraction, and for some people that’s very livening. For others, it scares the hell out of them,” said Mr. Newsom. “I get it. I watch Tucker Carlson.” Do you live in California? We want to hear your thoughts on your state’s relationship with the president. Send us an email at [onpolitics@nytimes.com](mailto:onpolitics@nytimes.com?te=1&nl=politics&emc=edit_cn_2019022520190225), including your name and city, and we may highlight it in our next newsletter. ____________________ Meeting Mr. Kim President Trump will meet for the second time with Kim Jong-un of North Korea this week. We asked Edward Wong, a diplomatic correspondent for The Times, to explain to us what makes this summit different from the last. Here’s what he told us: As I type this, sitting on a United Airlines flight bound for the tropics of Southeast Asia, President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are both on their own planes en route to the same destination. The rendezvous point is Hanoi, where Mr. Trump is expected to meet with Kim Jong-un, the young leader of North Korea. It will be their second summit. But more is at stake this time — the two nations must find a way to take [significant steps]( toward the general goals outlined in the joint communiqué from their first meeting, including denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, or they risk having the ongoing diplomacy fall apart. KCNA, via KNS, via Associated Press Mr. Trump has entrusted Mr. Pompeo with laying the groundwork for a successful summit. Mr. Pompeo and his diplomats have taken that to heart, trying to negotiate what are called “deliverables” — concrete things, given by one side to the other, that are announced to tie a neat bow on a summit. It is not an easy task for Mr. Pompeo: My colleague David Sanger and I [wrote a profile]( of his struggles with the challenges to his hard-line foreign policy vision from North Korea, Iran, Venezuela and even American allies. North Korea presents a vexing problem that is, in part, the doing of Mr. Pompeo’s boss. With an eye toward the Nobel Peace Prize, Mr. Trump has declared on Twitter that North Korea is “no longer a nuclear threat” and said he and Mr. Kim “fell in love.” On Sunday, Mr. Trump told a gathering of governors at the White House that he was “happy” as long as North Korea did not do nuclear tests, which it halted in late 2017. Mr. Pompeo directly contradicted the president’s earlier statement when [he told Jake Tapper of CNN]( on Sunday that North Korea was still a nuclear threat. Ever the loyal cabinet member — some would say mouthpiece — he tried to pretend Mr. Trump never mentioned the lack of nuclear threat, but Mr. Tapper presented him with the exact words from Mr. Trump. So how do you do diplomacy when the president’s view of reality is starkly different than yours? To complicate matters, some White House officials — including John R. Bolton, the national security adviser — take an even more hard-line view of North Korea than Mr. Pompeo, and they are carefully watching whether Mr. Pompeo is moving the goal posts on full denuclearization. Already, Mr. Pompeo’s envoy has [signaled that a declaration of nuclear assets]( from the North can take place later in the process, a shift in the American negotiating position. And what does the North Korean leader think of all this? In [a speech last Friday at Stanford]( Andrew Kim, a recently retired C.I.A. official on North Korea, recalled remarkable words he and Mr. Pompeo heard from the young leader during a visit to Pyongyang last April. Kim Jong-un, replying to Mr. Pompeo asking him whether he was truly ready to give up nuclear weapons, said: “I’m a father and a husband. And I have children. And I don’t want my children to carry the nuclear weapon on their back their whole life.” Read Edward’s latest story: [Defender of World Order or Trump Mouthpiece? Pompeo Is Tested by North Korea, Iran and U.S. Allies]( ____________________ What to read tonight • Oregon is expected to enact the nation’s first statewide rent control law, in response to rapidly rising housing costs. [Other states are watching closely.]( • Young people in Britain raised on budget cuts are rejecting capitalism, exposing the [starkest generation gap in the recent history of British politics.]( • PTSD, conspiracy theories and “trauma bonding,” all for $15 an hour. [This story from The Verge]( goes behind the scenes with the people whose job it is to keep your Facebook feed free of graphic content. ____________________ … Seriously No, of course I didn’t spend all day googling Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. But I am so here for [this frame-by-frame breakdown of their Oscar performance](. _____________________ Were you forwarded this newsletter? [Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox.]( Thanks for reading. Politics is more than what goes on inside the White House. On Politics brings you the people, issues and ideas reshaping our world. Is there anything you think we’re missing? Anything you want to see more of? We’d love to hear from you. Email us at [onpolitics@nytimes.com](mailto:onpolitics@nytimes.com?te=1&nl=politics&emc=edit_cn_2019022520190225). ADVERTISEMENT FOLLOW NYTimes [Facebook] [FACEBOOK]( [Twitter] [@nytimes]( Get more [NYTimes.com newsletters »]( | Get unlimited access to NYTimes.com and our NYTimes apps. [Subscribe »]( ABOUT THIS EMAIL You received this message because you signed up for NYTimes.com's Politics newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Manage Subscriptions]( | [Change Your Email]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Contact]( | [Advertise]( Copyright 2019 The New York Times Company | 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018