Trump attacks low-income housing in Pacific Palisades. But officials say no projects are planned

President Trump’s entry this week into the Pacific Palisades fire reconstruction plan has been met with confusion and eye-rolling from local officials who say he is now dreading projects that have never been proposed.

Trump said Thursday he planned to stop a low-income housing project from being developed in Pacific Palisades. His promise, which he made at the Cabinet meeting, is the second time this week that he has looked into the issues of the houses in the Palisades area that was hit by the fire.

“They want to build a low-income housing project in the middle of everything in the Palisades, and I’m not going to let it happen,” Trump said. “I’m not going to let these people destroy their home values.”

The comments left politicians in Los Angeles and California scratching their heads: what low-income housing project was the president talking about?

Both Councilwoman Traci Park and Mayor Karen Bass said they were unaware of a large low-income housing project coming to the Palisades.

“There are no plans to bring low-income housing to the Palisades,” Bass said in a phone interview with The Times on Thursday from Washington, DC.

Trump also took aim at Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday as he announced a council order to “start” the city’s permitting process to make it easier for fire victims to rebuild.

The ordinance, if implemented, would allow residents to certify themselves to federal authorities instead of going into a city office to obtain permits.

Bass said Thursday he would approve an executive order that would bring insurance companies and banks together to help burned-out Angelenos get their life insurance and long-term debt covered.

The Governor’s Office also said it did not know what low-income housing project Trump was talking about on Thursday.

“The president of the United States is an idiot and doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” said Izzy Gardon, Newsom’s spokeswoman. “This narrative that Gavin Newsom is trying to build high-density, low-income housing in the Palisades and call it ‘Newsomvilles’ is absurd.”

Gardon said the state is providing resources for developers to rebuild below-market-rate housing that was destroyed by the Palisades fire, which tore through the waterfront in January 2025, killing 12 and destroying thousands of homes and buildings.

In July, the governor committed $101 million to help rebuild efforts for “affordable multifamily rental housing in the fire-ravaged Los Angeles area.”

The grant was specific to areas affected by both the Palisades and Eaton fires.

The program allows affordable housing developers to apply for financing and prioritize projects near burned areas, ready for immediate construction.

This program requires that the development remain affordable for more than a century in order to receive funding.

Trump did not specify Thursday whether he was talking about the July announcement or a specific project.

“That was money going to the LA area of ​​four communities that were affected by the fire to help developers rebuild low-income housing that was destroyed by the fire,” Gardon said.

Palisades resident Maryam Zar said many in Palisades fear a new project on the Shell gas station site that developer Justin Kohanoff has said he wants to build into an eight-story, 100-unit, low-income building.

Kohanoff’s father, Saeed Kohanoff, declined to comment beyond saying the family has no immediate plans to develop the property.

The Trump administration did not immediately specify which low-income housing project, if any, the president was talking about.