Arsonist Moves into the White House

Donald Trump can’t even control himself in the midst of deadly wildfires in California, choosing instead to launch a political attack fueled by misinformation.

While people on the West Coast are running for their lives from devastating wildfires, the future U.S. president is on the East Coast stoking trouble on social media. What would otherwise be an absolute non-starter for any other president is socially acceptable under Donald Trump — like so many other things. This time, he chose to launch a political attack during a natural disaster.

At a moment when most of the California fires remained out of control, Trump was already blaming Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. Trump claimed that Newsom was listening to environmentalists and holding back water needed to fight fires to protect a species of fish. Trump believes all he has to do is sign the “water restoration declaration,” something Newsom says does not exist.[.

Trump is once again trying to score political points with targeted misinformation. Because, hand on heart, if his supporters believe he won the 2020 presidential election, which he lost, or that some dangerous “Deep State” is secretly controlling America’s fate, why wouldn’t they trust their savior when he claims the Democrats are deliberately withholding a declaration so people can burn?

After all, spreading the bizarre idea that exploding trees in Austrian “forest cities” contributed to wildfires during his first term didn’t do Trump any lasting harm. This was also the case in October when the Republican presidential candidate claimed without evidence that the Democratic governor of North Carolina denied aid to Republican communities after Hurricane Helene.

Distorted Truth

It was Trump himself who sought to withhold aid from California regions affected by wildfire in 2018 because he believed those areas vote predominantly vote for Democrats. Money started to flow only after his advisers presented data showing numerous Trump supporters in Orange County, which was heavily affected at the time.

The future U.S. president clearly still doesn’t care about facts. He will continue to distort and rewrite the truth in his favor over the next four years. Those who are well-disposed toward Trump will benefit from his power, while his opponents will have to prepare for hard times. Meanwhile, California will continue to depend on help from Washington as wildfires occur more often and more severely due to climate change, something Trump denies.

In fact, the state of California only owns a fraction of the state’s forest land at 3%, while more than half of the state’s forests belong to the federal government. And that means Trump will be responsible for those areas starting on Jan. 20 and will thus have the chance to put his good advice about controlling fires to use. Instead, he will probably choose to keep stoking trouble.