President Donald Trump talks to reporters. | Anna Moneymaker Pool / Getty Images
OAKLAND – President Donald Trump on Thursday accused California of burning wildfires and threatening to withhold federal money, repeating his attacks from previous rounds of catastrophic fire.
“I see the forest fires starting again,” he said. ‘They’re starting in California again. I said: you have to clean your floors, you have to clean your woods – there are many, many years of leaves and broken trees and they are, like, so flammable, you touch them and it goes up. “
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“Maybe we should just pay them because they don’t listen to us,” he added.
The combination of acknowledging guilt while fires are still burning and offering dubious remedies has become as calendic for Californians as the conflagrations that ignite each year. Those fires have fostered a predictable response from the president: blame the state-dominated state and then threaten to punish by withholding money. He did so as fires burned in 2018, and again in 2019.
“I’ve been telling them this for three years now, but they do not want to listen,” Trump said Thursday. “‘The environment, the environment’, but they’ve had massive fires again.”
Those broadsides have drawn fierce criticism from opponents who accuse Trump of politicizing natural disasters that seize lives and burn homes. An uncharacteristically hot and thundering weather system that swept across California in previous days caused hundreds of lightning-fast fires across the parked state. Hundreds of thousands of acres of evacuation have already been burned and forced while a helicopter pilot died in the battle in Fresno County.
Trump’s suggestions have attracted the attention of experts who say his regulations – listening more, releasing less water into the ocean for environmental purposes – suggest he does not understand the science of wildfires. Critics also point out that most of California’s wildlife areas are federally managed.
Trump said Thursday at his Pennsylvania rally that there are ‘forest cities’ that do not have the problems that California has, and he told supporters he was ‘mocked’ by California for his earlier comments on ‘forest clearing’. .
He cited his famous remarks from 2018, when he visited the remains of Paradise, a California city that has suffered the deadliest and most devastating fire in the state. Then, he said, he pointed to Finland, claiming that his leader said the European ‘forest nation’ had spent a lot of time listening and cleaning and doing things. And they have no problem. ‘
Finnish President Sauli Niinistö later said he told Trump that Finland takes care of the forests, but said nothing about listening, according to CNN.
Trump’s threats have proven insignificant in recent years, with California officials praising the disaster relief they have received from their federal partners. Just last week, Govin Newsom, California, announced a new “shared stewardship” pact that commits the U.S. Forest Service to working with California to manage forests to reduce fire risk.
‘Wildfires do not stop at jurisdictional boundaries. While we are responding to wildfires this red time this summer, improving coordination among the key stewards of California’s forested land will help us protect communities and restore forest health in California, “Newsom said in a statement.
