A trip home to celebrate Lunar New Year quickly turned into scrambling to address President Donald Trump’s recent executive order to review federal spending.

“This came out of nowhere,” said Rep. Derek Tran, D-Orange, speaking at a news conference Thursday.

“Monday night, Tuesday night, we were preparing for celebration,” Tran said. “That’s why I was back in the district. That was what was going to fill up my calendar.”

On Thursday, while the House was in recess, several congressional Democrats held events around Southern California to discuss the potential fallout from the spate of actions by the Trump administration, from disaster relief funding to the freeze on federal grants and loans.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., were also in the area. They were part of a group that spent the morning visiting what is left of the Altadena Community Church and the Altadena Town & Country Club (the church gutted and the club damaged during the Eaton fire earlier this month) after first meeting at Pasadena City Hall.

The lawmakers doubled down on their message that Southern California wildfire victims need more aid. And such funding should not come with any conditions as Trump and some Republican members of Congress have suggested, the lawmakers said.

Meanwhile, in Orange County, Tran and Rep. Dave Min, D-Irvine, joined local officials to decry a potential federal freeze on grants and loans.

Although the White House budget office rescinded its memo pausing federal aid Wednesday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X (formerly Twitter) that Trump’s executive orders on federal funding “remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented.” The administration has said all funding must comply with Trump’s executive orders, which target transgender rights, environmental justice and DEI initiatives.

Local nonprofits and lawmakers said they are still trying to make sense of the full impact and extent of the freeze.

“No one knows what’s happening,” said Tran, a freshman lawmaker. “There is no clear directive on what’s going on at the federal level.”

“The funding freeze that was ordered by the White House was reckless, irresponsible, unpatriotic and un-American. … We need leadership from the White House and this administration that is compassionate,” Jeffries said.

Mary Anne Foo, founder and executive director of the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance, or OCAPICA, in Garden Grove, said every federal award includes questions about diversity. The organization provides health and housing programs to low-income residents.

Without federal funding — including grants for mental health, substance use and housing — about 16,700 Orange County residents who rely on OCAPICA’s services will be affected, Foo said, including 12,000 who receive mental health prevention and early intervention services.

Some nonprofit leaders said their organizations’ entire identity could be threatened by Trump’s policies.

“Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California was founded in 1983 specifically to address the needs of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in need of legal services. Our entire model … is providing free legal services and support specifically in eight Asian languages and dialects,” said Connie Chung Joe, its CEO.

“If an immigrant domestic violence survivor calls us and is only able to speak Korean and needs help with getting a restraining order, we can help that person do that in a way most other organizations cannot,” Chung Joe said.

“If that is what is being scrutinized under what is called DEI, that means our entire organization’s identity, our whole purpose, is at risk here.”

When asked what’s next, given the uncertainty of the situation, Min said he believes the attorneys’ general lawsuit is a “clear cut, slam-dunk” case. Earlier this week, a coalition of 23 Democratic attorneys general, including California Attorney General Rob Bonta, sued the Trump administration, seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent the freeze.

“My strong belief is that the judiciary will rule this to be unconstitutional,” Min said. “What I don’t know is whether the Trump administration will adhere to that court decision.”

Farther north, the visit by House Democrats to the San Gabriel Valley on Thursday occurred nearly a week after Trump visited Southern California.

Trump’s visit, however, only included a tour of Pacific Palisades.

Altadena, about 40 miles to the east, was omitted from the president’s itinerary — a decision that left some in the San Gabriel Valley community feeling snubbed.

On Jan. 24, Trump traveled to North Carolina first to tour an area hit by last year’s Hurricane Helene before landing in Los Angeles to survey the Palisades, ending his day in Nevada.

Rep. Judy Chu, who represents Altadena and Pasadena and who had invited Trump to Southern California, was part of a roundtable discussion with the president during his trip to the area last Friday.

“I was in the briefing, and my main message was: ‘Don’t forget Altadena and Pasadena,’ ” Chu said.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment Thursday asking why the president did not visit Altadena.

Chu said she suspected that Trump did not come to the San Gabriel Valley because he was pressed for time.

“Nonetheless,” she said, “we know how important it is for him to see not just what happens out there (in the Palisades) but our area.”