dtucker300 Loc: Vista, CA

Thursday, Feb. 20, Los Angeles.

California has long been a thorn in President Trump’s side, part political foil and part punching bag. But he also can’t seem to keep away. On Wednesday, he wrapped up his fifth visit to the blue state since taking office, timed two weeks before the California primary.

Here’s a quick look at how Trump spent his two days in “occupied territory,” as the president’s domestic policy chief referred to the state in a tweet shortly after Trump touched down on California soil.

Tuesday: Trump took aim at L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti before the president had even landed at LAX, sparring with him on Twitter over immigration from Air Force One. Later that afternoon, he headed to Beverly Hills to meet with organizers of the 2028 Olympic Games before attending a fundraising dinner.

[Read the story: “Greeted in L.A. by jeers and cheers, Trump slams city leaders” in the Los Angeles Times]

During a briefing on pr********ns for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the president continued his penchant for slamming local leaders failing to slow the homelessness epidemic, saying that if L.A. doesn’t “clean it up fast,” he would intervene.

After a private fundraiser at the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills, the president chose not to spend the night in “occupied territory.” He instead flew across state lines to a room at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas.

Wednesday: After stopping by a reception in the lobby of his Vegas hotel, the president hightailed it back to California for a high-dollar fundraiser at Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison’s Rancho Mirage estate. He was met by “boisterous protests and rallies” along the motorcade route, according to the Desert Sun. The event went ahead despite protests from Oracle employees, who called on Ellison to cancel the fundraiser with a petition arguing that Ellison’s support of Trump “does not affirm Oracle’s core values of diversity, inclusiveness and ethical business conduct.”

Air Force One departed the Coachella Valley for even friendlier climes early Wednesday afternoon, landing in Bakersfield just after 2:30 p.m. Despite losing the state in the 2016 e******n, Trump bested Hillary Clinton by 13 percentage points in Kern County, where Bakersfield is located. His visit was at least partially intended to shore up Central Valley Republicans ahead of California’s March 3 primary.

As my colleague Bettina Boxall detailed in her dispatch from Bakersfield, Trump then signed a memo directing federal agencies to move ahead with relaxed endangered species protections that have curbed water deliveries to San Joaquin Valley agriculture and the urban Southland. Gov. Gavin Newsom‘s administration said Wednesday that it would challenge the federal action in court.

[Read the story: “Trump vows more water for Central Valley farmers, less for fish. Can he deliver?” in the Los Angeles Times]

“In signing Wednesday’s memo, Trump sought to highlight an environmental rollback he set in motion shortly before the 2018 midterm e******n, when he signed a separate directive promising to bring ‘a lot of water’ to Central Valley growers, some of his biggest California boosters,” according to Bettina’s story.

Wealthy farmers — including those served by a sprawling irrigation agency that Interior Secretary David Bernhardt represented for years as a Washington lawyer and lobbyist before joining the Trump administration — stand to benefit from the relaxed protections. Bernhardt was on hand Wednesday, along with leading Central Valley Republicans, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, Rep. Devin Nunes, Rep. Tom McClintock and former Rep. David Valadao, who is trying to reclaim the House seat he lost two years ago when Democrats flipped his district.

After that, it was a wrap on California — at least for this visit — as the president headed to Phoenix for a rally.

Lonewolf

he bowed to rich farmers i doubt ca will pay any attention to his order

Kevyn

You have to hand it to him, needlessly flying with his entire staff and security detail so he can bilk taxpayers for them all to stay at one of his hotels. The Orange Anus is so crooked he could con the tattoos off of a seasoned carnival barker, and shameless.