Trump’s Take on LA Wildfires Causes Outrage: Critics Claim He Got It All Wrong

This week, progressive commentators were baffled as former President Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters attributed the catastrophic wildfires in Los Angeles County to bizarre causes, including accusations against a fish-loving governor and diversity initiatives, blatantly ignoring expert opinions on the actual origins of these deadly fires.

Trump used his platform on Truth Social on Wednesday to baselessly claim that California’s Democratic Governor, Gavin Newsom, whom he derogatorily dubbed “Newscum,” had declined “to sign the water restoration declaration presented to him, which would have allowed millions of gallons of water… to flow daily to various parts of California, including the regions now engulfed in near-apocalyptic flames.”

In response, Newsom’s office pointed out that “the water restoration declaration” Trump mentioned does not exist.

Trump further criticized Newsom for allegedly prioritizing “an essentially worthless fish, the smelt, by restricting its water supply,” a misleading and incorrect statement considering California’s efforts to protect the endangered delta smelt actually involve increasing fresh water flows to its habitats.

Jeffrey Mount, a water policy expert at the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, discussed with MSNBC’s newsletter editor Ryan Teague Beckwith that Trump’s statements were entirely off the mark.

Beckwith summarized his conversation with Mount, stating:

Here’s the reality… During Trump’s presidency, his administration attempted to redirect some water from a river delta near San Francisco towards agricultural use in the San Joaquin Valley and other areas. They proposed a water management plan which was later contested by Newsom in court. Subsequently, the Biden administration worked out a new agreement with California concerning water distribution.

This is fundamental knowledge, so Trump’s depiction of Newsom refusing to sign a nonexistent document highlights how detached he is from his own policy initiatives.

Moreover, Elon Musk, a MAGA proponent and future co-leader of the Department of Government Efficiency, spread various offensive posts on his X social media network—previously known as Twitter. These included racist remarks targeting Democratic Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, antisemitic rants by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and subtly sexist and homophobic comments about Los Angeles’ fire chief, along with his frequent criticisms of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.

Slate’s web editor, Nitish Pahwa, criticized the MAGA faction for their “blaze of lies and disinformation.”

Pahwa commented, “Just a day after Mark Zuckerberg declared that Facebook and Instagram will stop fact-checking posts, and only months following relentless online hoaxes that hindered federal relief efforts in North Carolina post-Hurricane Helene, we see an early example of how the U.S. might continue to face and react to these escalating climate crises in the near future.”

Pahwa further noted, “In the absence of mainstream television coverage that fails to acknowledge climate change during fire reports, deceitful digital commentators are quick to offer their misleading narratives. Not only does climate change intensify unprecedented weather events—it also empowers those peddling false remedies.”

Climate scientists and advocates provided fact-based explanations for the rise in extreme weather phenomena like the Los Angeles County wildfires.

As reported by Common Dreams, Aaron Regunberg of Public Citizen’s Climate Program highlighted, “A recent study has shown that nearly all the increase in area burned by wildfires in California over the last fifty years can be attributed to human-induced climate change.”

“This disaster directly links to the misconduct of Big Oil,” stated Regunberg.

Jamie Henn, director of Fossil Free Media, remarked, “This type of disaster was precisely predicted by Exxon’s own scientists over 50 years ago, yet billions were spent to maintain our dependency on fossil fuels.”

According to the U.S. National Park Service, the scope of California wildfires has quintupled since the 1970s.