Trump says Pacific Palisades is allowing affordable housing. Is that true?

Karen Garcia, Los Angeles Times on Sep 17, 2025

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Gov. Gavin Newsom has responded to a social media post from President Trump saying the state was nearing approval of low-income housing in Pacific Palisades following January's firestorm, writing the claim is a "lie."

On Tuesday, Trump took to Truth Social to say Newsom was "in the final stages of approval to build low income housing in Pacific Palisades. How unfair is that to the people that have suffered so much."

The claim sparked a quick response from Newsom's social media team, who posted on X less than an hour later that Trump's claim was "A straight up lie."

Facts: Applications for new urban lot splits and two-unit developments within the Palisades are banned by emergency order of the mayor.

In July, the governor's office and the California Department of Housing and Community Development announced the state was providing $101 million to fund affordable multifamily rental housing projects that were ready to start building immediately. The projects would be located near L.A. County burn scars and included a preference for residents displaced by the January firestorm.

But after local officials voiced concerns from residents that it could trigger a wave of denser development, Newsom's office issued an executive order giving local governments the ability to limit how single-family lots in the Palisades, Malibu and Altadena burn scars can be split up for additional housing.

That same day, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass banned duplex project applications within the the Palisades burn zone.

Beyond claiming new affordable housing in Pacific Palisades was imminent, Trump's Truth Social post also claimed the governor and Bass were prioritizing new low-income housing projects over Californians rebuilding "long after the federal permits were issued."

Facts: The state does not issue housing permits, local cities and counties do.

Six months after the fires, more than 800 homeowners in the Pacific Palisades, Altadena, Malibu and Pasadena areas affected by the fires had applied for rebuilding permits, according to a Times analysis. At the time, at least 145 had received approval to start construction on major repairs or replacement of their homes.

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(Staff writer Liam Dillon contributed to this report.)