There is little question that California Gov. Gavin Newsom, long an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump, has been at or near the forefront of the Democratic anti-Trump "resistance" since the Republican president's first term in office.

That may have changed, along with Newsom's tone and rhetoric toward Trump, after the governor met with the president in the White House this week to discuss the recent devastating wildfires in the Golden State, Fox News reported.

However, there are legitimate suspicions that Newsom's apparent softened stance regarding Trump is only as deep and long-lasting as his state's dire need for federal assistance to recover from the extensive damage caused by a series of deadly and destructive wildfires over the past month.

Just playing nice to secure federal aid?

Politico reported that Gov. Newsom met with President Trump in the Oval Office on Wednesday for around 90 minutes to discuss federal funds and other aid needed to bolster California's wildfire recovery efforts -- a meeting that Newsom's office described afterward as "very productive."

In a statement issued following the meeting, Newsom said, "Thank you, President Trump, for coming to our communities to see this first hand, and meeting with me today to continue our joint efforts to support people impacted."

The friendly tone seemed to be a continuation of what was observed on the airport tarmac during Trump's visit to California a couple of weeks ago to witness the devastation himself, when the two political rivals who've often been hyper-critical of each other were seen chatting amicably, trading jokes and handshakes, and even appearing as though they enjoyed their time together.

Democratic strategist Matt Bennett suggested to Politico that Newsom's behavior was evidence of a governor's "hierarchy of needs," in which disaster aid following a crisis takes precedence over all political differences, and compared what just occurred to the 2012 episode in which then-Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was compelled to play nice with then-Democratic President Barack Obama following Hurricane Sandy.

"It’ll shift. This has nothing to do with Trump’s honeymoon. It has everything to do with federal disaster aid to California," the strategist added. "And once that question is settled, I think Newsom will go back to being extremely hostile to Trump."

Newsom speaks positively about Trump

Spectrum News reported that Gov. Newsom was in Washington D.C. on Wednesday to lobby both the White House and members of Congress for more federal aid for California to address the wildfire recovery.

Newsom later told reporters that he and President Trump didn't discuss any "granular" details of the federal aid requests but instead kept the conversation "more top line -- it was sort of consistent with the brief tarmac visit. Try to turn a page here, a little bit on some of the rhetoric and noise, sort of getting out of the campaign mode into a governing mode."

"There was a lot going back and forth, lawsuits related to, you know, certain actions that the administration took in California, pushing back, but -- same time we’re able to pick up the phone and address issues," he continued of their at-times contentious relationship during Trump's first term.

"I said this so many times, publicly and privately, everything we needed during COVID, Trump delivered for California," the governor stated. "It was a really interesting dynamic, because it ran contrary to a lot of other states that had a different relationship. So I want to find that space again as it relates to this disaster and recovery. And I hope yesterday helped in that cause."

Politics "wasn't present" during "productive and constructive meetings"

Asked if President Trump had used any of his derisive nicknames for the governor, such as "Newscum," during the meeting, Gov. Newsom laughed and said they'd "had some fun" and he didn't take anything "personally," but went on to say, "None of this is helpful or constructive. But, you know … he reminded me of things we said on the campaign trail. I mean, this is -- look -- it was a tough campaign, and I was not shy about my support for the former president and the ticket, and ultimately Kamala [Harris] and the ticket. So it is what it is, but that’s why that was an important meeting."

"They’ve been incredibly productive and constructive meetings, and if there’s politics, it wasn’t present -- wasn’t present in the room … including yesterday with the president," the governor added of his bipartisan meetings on Capitol Hill. "I mean, it was on every issue, just had different points of view on so many things, and yet, [it] was nice just to be able to have that opportunity to dialog in a non-confrontational way."