President Trump repeated falsehoods about California’s firefighting efforts on Friday and blamed Democratic officials for a wide variety of issues affecting the response to wildfires as he toured areas of Los Angeles damaged by the disaster.
In a meeting with state leaders in Pacific Palisades, a community that was heavily damaged by fire, Mr. Trump opened his remarks in a local firehouse with praise of the firefighters he met during the tour. Your fire department was so beautiful” and “in perfect physical shape,” he said.
The commendations quickly turned to attacks against state officials. Mr. Trump blamed the local bureaucracy, Democratic politicians, and a small species of protected fish known as the delta smelt for water supply issues that made it harder for firefighters to get the blazes under control. Water experts in California have said that many of those claims are wrong, and that problems fighting fires, which have raged for weeks, had other causes.
“They talk about the delta smelt, which is a fish that’s this big,” Mr. Trump said at the meeting with state officials, showing a space between his thumb and index finger. “It really doesn’t have to be protected because it’s in other areas,” he said. “The people of California have to be protected.”
Mr. Trump sparred with Democratic officials throughout the meeting, to raucous applause from local Republicans in attendance. He accused Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles and other local officials of slowing down the rebuilding effort with permitting issues and other red tape.
At one point, Ms. Bass said that reconstruction could not begin immediately because more cleanup was necessary in some areas, as was removing hazardous waste.
Trump replied: “What’s hazardous waste? I mean, you’re going to have to define that.”
In one bizarre exchange, Mr. Trump accused Representative Brad Sherman, a Democrat who represents Pacific Palisades, of causing insurance companies to pull out of the state of California.
“You did something, Brad, where every insurance company in the country left California,” Mr. Trump said. “So you have no insurance. You made it so impossible, and the people that think like you — ”
“People like me? Mr. President, I don’t know,” Mr. Sherman said before Mr. Trump cut him off. Mr. Sherman added later that insurance companies “are pulling out of Florida as well.”
Earlier in the meeting, Mr. Sherman pushed back against Mr. Trump’s threat to withhold disaster aid from California unless the state made policy changes on water use and a voter ID law. Mr. Sherman said that it would create a vicious political cycle around approving disaster aid.
“I would never have turned to somebody from Louisiana and say, ‘You keep living on your cousin’s couch because we are not going to help you rebuild until Louisiana agrees with me on a woman’s right to choose,’” he said, referring to abortion rights.
Mr. Trump also repeated a falsehood that he raised during his first administration in the aftermath of wildfires that burned through parts of California in 2018. At that time, President Trump said that California could learn from Finland by raking its forests to prevent wildfires. Experts called that criticism unjustified as well, and a Finnish official said that raking for leaves and needles is not a typical feature of Finnish fire prevention.
