Trump lights match in California
Slams Democratic governor, again, over response to wildfires
U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday criticized California’s Democratic governor for his handling of wildfires and made a vague threat to cut aid as blazes continue to burn in the northern and southern parts of the state.
The comments are the latest instalment of the president’s long-standing grievance with California, a state that has clashed with Trump’s administration, particularly on issues of environmental regulation.
In Trump’s first significant mention of California’s wildfires on Twitter since the massive Kincade Fire broke out in late October, the president accused Gov. Gavin Newsom of doing a “terrible” job of forest management.
Newsom later responded with his own tweet: “You don’t believe in climate change. You are excused from this conversation.” The governor’s criticism was a jab at Trump’s longstanding refusal to acknowledge the impact of climate change or the man-made factors that accelerate it.
As he has before, Trump made several erroneous claims about the causes of and potential solutions for the wildfires while writing that he had told Newsom previously to “clean” the forest floors.
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment seeking clarification about his statements, including the specific funding of which Trump was speaking when he declared “no more.”
In a statement to The Washington Post several hours after
Trump’s initial criticism, Newsom defended his administration’s management of the wildfires and shot back at Trump a second time.
“We’re successfully waging war against thousands of fires started across the state in the last few weeks due to extreme weather created by climate change while Trump is conducting a full-on assault against the antidotes,” the governor said.
Trump’s Sunday tweets are a retread of his own past remarks about California’s wildfires. In January, he threatened to cut off Federal Emergency Management Agency aid to the state as it grappled with the destruction from a deadly and devastating 2018 fire season. It was unclear whether he had the authority to do so.
In decrying California’s forestry management, he echoed a prior suggestion that wildfires can be mitigated by cleaning or
“raking” the forest floor. The president’s criticisms, however, reflect a broad misunderstanding of the climate-driven science behind the seasonal wildfires and at the same time mischaracterize the realities on the ground in California.
While fire prevention generally includes some level of debris management, scientists and fire-prevention experts agree that California’s wildfire situation largely stems from intensifying heat and creates tinderbox conditions during fire season — which coincides with the prime time for powerful offshore winds like the Santa Ana and El Diablo that spread the easily fuelled fire.
Though natural events like lightning can start fires, most of the wildfires in the state are started by human conditions.
Last year’s Camp Fire, the deadliest and most destructive in California history, was sparked by equipment operated by the utility giant Pacific
Gas & Electric Co.
Several of the largest wildfires of this year’s season aren’t even burning in forests: The Getty Fire and others near Los Angeles broke out in vegetation-dominated hillsides rather than in state or federal forests.
California typically experiences its rainy season during this time of year, but no showers are in sight near L.A. If the rains hold off, fire danger will remain a significant threat possibly through November and even into December.
Trump has a pattern of wrapping his remarks on climate-fuelled crises on the West Coast with barbs aimed at Democratic leadership in states such as California, Washington and Oregon.
Though the president focused his attack on Newsom, the majority of California’s forests are managed by the federal government.