If you were a family looking to spend a fun Memorial Day weekend at Disneyland, you probably got a nasty surprise.
As most Southern Californians were made aware of, the Golden State was gripped in the fears that a chemical tanker in Garden Grove (which is in Orange County) would either explode or leak toxic chemicals into the atmosphere.
It’s been bad enough for California Gov. Gavin Newsom to publicly reach out to President Donald Trump — who are not on the friendliest of terms — for help.
“Governor Gavin Newsom today announced a request submitted last night for an Emergency Declaration to President Donald Trump to support ongoing response operations in Orange County, where state and local officials are actively managing an ongoing incident,” the governor’s office said in a statement.
As KTLA-TV reported, this “ongoing incident” began on Thursday “at the GKN Aerospace Transparency Systems facility on Western Avenue, where a 34,000-gallon tank containing methyl methacrylate, a highly flammable industrial chemical used to make acrylic plastics, overheated and began venting vapors.”
Initially, concerns arose that either a quietly devastating chemical leak or a loudly devastating explosion would be the only two options for this rapidly overheating tanker.
Given the seriousness of those issues, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Newsom turned to Trump to declare a federal emergency, as tens of thousands of Southern Californians were evacuated in response.
And according to the New York Post, Trump granted that request, officially declaring the Garden Grove fiasco a federal emergency on Monday.
This means that the Golden State governor will get access to all the extra money he was looking for in his original request.
By declaring a federal emergency, Trump opened up the ability for Newsom to collect federal aid as California continues to try and resolve the Garden Grove issue. California will also now receive assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Thankfully, the louder option appears to have been taken off the board.
***INCIDENT UPDATE***
Note: Videos include AI-generated captions. While efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, some transcription errors may occur. pic.twitter.com/tP4ZuPc8C8
— OCFA (@OCFireAuthority) May 25, 2026
“We are happy to report that the threat of a BLEVE is now off the table,” Orange County Fire Authority officials said, per KTLA.
BLEVE stands for Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion, which is highly destructive.
In a curious note, in Newsom’s follow-up announcement about the federal emergency declaration, the governor made sure to take quite a bit of the credit for himself.
“Governor Newsom has secured federal assistance to support ongoing response operations in Orange County,” the release boldly claimed in its very first line.
Newsom also made no mention of Trump in his actual statement accompanying the release. But while Newsom may view this as credit, others may view it as blame.
Fiscally conservative critics of Newsom have pointed out online that California is sitting on billions of its own dollars specifically earmarked for a rainy day, based on the state’s own budget summary. Others have meanwhile noted that Newsom has not been the best steward of money even when it is flowing. Those critics frequently cite the Hoover Institution‘s 2025 analysis that California’s $37 billion program to combat homelessness has actually made homelessness worse.
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