Trump Showed Unusual Grace in His LA Wildfires Press Conference — Unfortunately, Only Fox News Aired It Live

President Donald Trump took a sharp and surprising departure from his usually divisive rhetoric Friday evening during a Los Angeles press event focused on wildfire disaster relief. It made for a remarkably compelling hour of live television. Unfortunately, neither CNN nor MSNBC opted to air it live, instead focusing on the close confirmation vote for controversial Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth.

It’s difficult not to see this programming decision as symptomatic of what’s ailing the national body politic — a commitment to breathless coverage of Trump-era conflict, with an air of hope that the former Fox News host would somehow not get confirmed. Of course, he was, and CNN viewers watched Vice President JD Vance’s motorcade travel to the Capitol to cast the deciding vote while CNN analysts vamped about why such a close vote was historic and reflective of our divided times.

Only Fox News viewers were able to watch Trump do something we haven’t seen him do, maybe ever: provide a platform to his critics, namely Mayor Karen Bass and Rep. Brad Sherman, who rose to the occasion of collaborative governance for Californians in dire need, putting petty snipes and barbs aside, at least for just over an hour.

The criticism levied at Trump for injecting politics into major disasters has been voluminous and merited. In this latest episode, while local officials were busy organizing evacuation plans, supporting infrastructure needs, and helping those in need, Trump was posting mean-spirited barbs at Governor Gavin Newsom and other California Democrats.

Trump also controversially suggested California should meet specific conditions, like Voter ID, to get federal aid to support the rebuilding of neighborhoods laid to waste by unchecked wildfires. Tellingly, he did not do the same when he visited hurricane-ravaged North Carolina earlier in the day, which raised serious concerns Trump was once again playing politics with an enormous disaster.

In that context, Trump hosted the press conference held in a Los Angeles firehouse. Given the setting, the past barbs, and the fact that Trump would be sharing the dais with Democrats, it had all the makings of a wildly compelling hour of television. What stood out nearly immediately, however, was the dramatic shift in Trump’s tone after having witnessed firsthand the devastation and “incineration” that he was clearly shocked by.

The Hollywood Reporter conveyed the tone as such:

“There can be no Golden Age without the Golden State,” Trump reportedly told the governor. “It’s a great state. It’s a fantastic place.”

The shift in tone toward California and its Democrat leadership, at the state level and in the city of Los Angeles, continued throughout the president’s visit.

“We’re going to be with you,” Trump said. “Your governor met us at the plane, and we had a very, very positive talk. We have to work together to get this really worked out…I saw a lot of bad things on television, but the extent of it, the side of it, we flew over it in a helicopter. And it is devastation.”

Gone was Trump’s nonstop grievance and blame over the past four years. He repeatedly pledged full support to Los Angeles and clearly conveyed the importance of rebuilding the fire-ravaged neighborhoods as efficiently as possible. It was a strikingly different version of the man we’ve seen on the campaign trail for a long time.

Yes, he did have the same self-promotional flourish, rambling “expert” asides. He could not help but drag the Biden administration for what he deemed their past administrative failures in a way that seemed like campaign muscle memory. But anyone eager to see a more unified US government system in the face of catastrophe was likely left pleased and even surprised by how convivial and supportive the discussion was.

This leads us to what seems to me to be the stunningly poor programming decision to ignore this wildly entertaining and unique hour of television as CNN and MSNBC did. No reasonable person truly expected Hegseth to lose his confirmation vote. Yes, there is an argument for the historical nature of a one-vote confirmation win for a Secretary of Defense, which has never happened before in history. But that was settled news before the vote happened.

Hegseth, the former Fox & Friends Weekend host, has zero experience at the scale necessary to run the Defense Department. But his confirmation felt fait accompli days ago, and the decision to air political insights from pundits on the inevitable missed something that rarely happens: Trump being kind and graceful to his political opponents.

Look, I’ve long been critical of Trump’s self-promotion and attention to his own personal fortune over leading the country. (See: the launch of a meme coin the day before he took office). But I’m also patriotic and eager to see any elected official transcend the usual partisan sniping when American citizens of all races, creeds, and political persuasions are in need.

Shockingly to me, Trump rose to the occasion Friday in a way that should please most Americans. It’s a shame that only Fox News viewers saw it live.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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