President Donald Trump “will do the right thing” and support aid for wildfire-ravaged Southern California, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday during a visit to Washington that includes stops at the White House and Capitol.

Newsom spoke to The Bee at the Capitol, where he planned to spend much of his day visiting with Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

Asked whether he was confident he would get GOP support, the governor said, “I have to reflect on the word “c” a little bit more. I believe we can and will and we should. It’s just the right thing to do.”

Trump and Republican leaders are talking about attaching conditions to the aid. Among the potential conditions mentioned are stricter immigration enforcement and requiring tougher voter ID laws.

Trump holds the key to any aid. Though the president has routinely derided the governor, referring to him as “Newscum,” the governor said he’s found Trump a willing partner in times of crisis.

He called his relationship with Trump “interesting … more interesting than most.”

Their meeting is the first time since his victory in the November election that Trump will greet a longtime political opponent who is considering his own bid for higher office at the White House.

The two men got along well in trying to help recovery efforts after previous wildfires and during the 2020 Covid crisis, Newsom said.

He recalled his first meeting Trump in 2018, when they toured damage in Paradise, from the Camp Fire.

“We maintained a working relationship,’’ Newsom said Wednesday. “There was sort of this underlying engagement.”

He met with Trump last month when the president toured the wildfire-damaged areas in Los Angeles and was to meet with him again later Wednesday.

Newsom said his hope is “just reinforcing a relationship with trust and communication.”

He left California on Tuesday without acknowledging the Legislature’s passage of two bills that would shore up California’s legal defenses against the White House. A spokesperson said Newsom would sign them into law after he returns from Washington, D.C., later this week.

His purpose in Washington, Newsom said, is to cut through all that. Asked how he would define a successful trip, he said, “making sure that the American people who happen to live in the state of California have the same support that traditionally has been afforded to people living in disaster-prone and disaster-impacted areas of the country.

“Really, that’s the mindset. The rest is noise, distraction,” he said.

Distributed by Tribune News Service