With cataclysmic wildfires raging across Los Angeles, President-elect Donald Trump has not offered any sympathy to the traumatized victims, something any human being would do let alone someone soon to take the highest political office in the nation
Instead, he has boasted that he could do a better job managing the crisis, spewing falsehoods and casting blame on the state’s Democratic governor.
Trump has lashed out at his longtime political foe Governor Gavin Newsom’s forest management policies and shoved outright lies about how the state’s fish conservation efforts were responsible for fire hydrants running dry in urban areas. Referring to the governor by a derisive nickname, Trump also said he should resign.
Meanwhile, more than 180,000 people were under evacuation orders and the fires have consumed more than 45 square miles. One that destroyed the neighborhood of Pacific Palisades became the most destructive blaze in Los Angeles history.
The “Trump v. Newsom: Round 2” was to be expected since the liberal Democrat has long been one of Trump’s biggest foils. But the Western fires were also a sign of something far more grave than a political spat or a fight over fish. Wildfire season is growing ever longer thanks to increasing drought and heat brought on by climate change.
Trump refuses to recognize the environmental dangers, instead blaming increasing natural disasters on his political opponents or as acts of God. He has promised to drill for more oil and cut back on renewable energy.
On January 9, Trump said on social media that Newsom should “open up the water main” — an overly simplistic solution to a complex problem. “NO MORE EXCUSES FROM THIS INCOMPETENT GOVERNOR,” Trump said, adding, “IT’S ALREADY FAR TOO LATE!”
Standing on the street in a scorched subdivision as a home behind him was engulfed in flames, Newsom responded to the vitriolic criticism when asked about it by CNN.
“People are literally fleeing. People have lost their lives. Kids lost their schools. Families completely torn asunder. Churches burned down, and this guy wants to politicize it,” Newsom said. “I have a lot of thoughts and I know what I want to say, but I won’t.”
In a post on his Truth Social media network, Trump tried to connect dry hydrants to criticism of the state’s approach to balancing the distribution of water to farms and cities with the need to protect endangered species including the Delta smelt.
Trump has sided with farmers over environmentalists in a long-running dispute over California’s scarce water resources. But that debate has nothing to do with the hydrant issue in Los Angeles, driven by an intense demand on a municipal system not designed to battle such blazes.
About 40% of Los Angeles city water comes from state-controlled projects connected to northern California and the state has limited the water it delivers this year. But the southern California reservoirs these canals help feed are at above-average levels for this time of year.
Roughly 20% of hydrants across the city went dry as crews battled blazes, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said. Firefighters in Southern California are accustomed to dealing with the strong Santa Ana winds that blow in the fall and winter, but the hurricane-force gusts earlier in the week took them by surprise. The winds grounded firefighting aircraft that should have been making critical water drops, straining the hydrant system.
“This is unlike anything I’ve seen in my 25 years on the fire department,” Los Angeles Fire Captain Adam VanGerpen told CBS This Morning.
Janisse Quiñones, head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said the ferocity of the fire made the demand for water four times greater than “we’ve ever seen in the system.”
Hydrants are designed for fighting fires at one or two houses at a time, not hundreds, Quiñones said, and refilling the tanks also requires asking fire departments to pause firefighting efforts.
President Joe Biden, who was in California for an environmental event that ended up being canceled as the fires raged, appeared with Newsom at a Santa Monica firehouse on January 8. On January 9, without naming Trump, he explained in a briefing how the hydrants had ended up dry, saying he was seeking to debunk rumors in “simple straightforward language.” In crisis, he said, “rumors and fear spread very quickly.”
“There is in case you haven’t noticed, there is global warming,” President Biden said, adding “it’s not about the politics, it’s about getting people some sense of security.”
“Climate change is real,” he said emphatically.
President Biden also quickly issued a major disaster declaration for California, releasing some immediate federal funds, and approved 100% federal funding for 180 days.
But any additional federal response will be overseen by Trump, who has a history of withholding or delaying federal aid to punish his political enemies.
In September, during a press conference at his Los Angeles golf course, Trump threatened: “We won’t give him money to put out all his fires. And if we don’t give him the money to put out his fires, he’s got problems.”
Trump’s support in California has increased in recent years, which could further embolden him in his tussles with Democratic leaders there. In 2024, he improved his vote share in Los Angeles and surrounding areas hit by the fires by 4.68 percentage points. And while he still lost the state overall, he grew his overall margin by 4 points compared to the 2020 election.
As for the impact of the fires on Californians, Trump said areas in Beverly Hills and around it were “being decimated” and that he had “many friends living in those houses.” He framed the losses as a potential hit to the state’s finances.
“The biggest homes, some of the most valuable homes in the world are just destroyed. I don’t even know. You talk about a tax base, if those people leave you’re going to lose half your tax base of California,” Trump said.
Critics believe that Trump’s latest round of toxic outbursts were designed, in part, to direct attention away from his 34 felony convictions.
On January 10 he was sentenced in his hush money case, but the judge declined to impose any punishment, an outcome that cements his conviction while freeing him to return to the White House unencumbered by the threat of a jail term or a fine.
The punishment-free judgment marked a quiet end to an extraordinary case that for the first time put a former president and major presidential candidate in a courtroom as a criminal defendant. The case was the only one of four criminal indictments that has gone to trial and possibly the only one that ever will.
Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan could have sentenced the 78-year-old Republican to up to four years in prison. Instead, he chose a sentence that sidestepped thorny Constitutional issues by effectively ending the case but assured that Trump will become the first person convicted of a felony to assume the presidency.
While Trump does not have to go to jail, pay a fine, or perform community service as a result of his felony conviction for falsifying business records, he will have felonies on his criminal record, which will affect some of his rights.
Also, under federal law, people convicted of felonies are not allowed to possess firearms. By law, every person convicted of a felony in New York must provide a DNA sample for the state’s crime databank. Samples are collected after sentencing, typically when a defendant reports to probation, jail, or prison.
Samples can also be taken by a court or police official. It is a non-invasive process involving a swab along the inside of the cheek. State police analyze the cells and genetic material, creating a profile that is then entered into the databank.
If Trump’s DNA matches evidence from a past crime in New York, it could potentially lead to new investigations or charges. Serious crimes typically have no statute of limitations, meaning a DNA link could open the door to prosecution, even decades later. However, for lesser offenses, statutes of limitations may apply and again allow Trump to avoid any legal consequences.
