How Donald Trump misused the Los Angeles fire

How did a well-known hobby craftsman put it? “Crisis can also be cool.” Donald Trump may have seen something similar recently.

The Republican is abusing the firestorms that have been tearing through California for days, which have already consumed 10,000 buildings and ten lives, for his political purposes.

From the perspective of a man who either believes climate change is exaggerated or non-existent and fantasizes about the rebirth of the USA as an oil nation, there is only one culprit for the inferno: the Democrats. In this case, representative Gavin Newsom, Governor of California.

On Truth Social, his bulletin board of hate, Trump recently attacked his long-time enemy daily. On Wednesday he called for Newsom’s resignation, saying it was “all his fault!!!”. Trump got creative with his justification: failed forestry policy, lack of fire-fighting water due to fish protection, you name it.

The 47th President also blamed the governor of the most populous state for the fact that the fire hydrants temporarily ran dry. According to this, one in five hydrants actually failed in the meantime. But that wasn’t due to poor preparation.

The reservoirs were full and the water level in the reservoirs in the north from which they are fed was above average. This year’s surprisingly strong Santa Ana winds not only whipped the flames with unprecedented force across the already parched region, but also hindered the use of fire-fighting aircraft. The firefighters tried in vain to compensate for the lack of water from above using the hydrants. Their inlets, in turn, were often already destroyed by the fire or overloaded by residents who wanted to save their homes themselves, writes climate researcher Peter Gleick. The head of the local authority for water and energy spoke of a water requirement four times higher than “we have ever seen in our system”.

For Trump it’s all “EXCUSES”, Newsom should just open the lines. The governor himself, however, exercised presidential restraint. “I have a lot of thoughts and I know what I want to say. I won’t do it”, .

Trump had long ago thought up a tailor-made insult for the governor: Newscumbased on the English word “scum”, German: Abschaum. Trump’s insult arsenal is notoriously full. But he only ennobles opponents with nicknames who he sees as a threat. And Newsom is dangerous for him.

On the one hand, he was and is a close ally of “Crazy Kamala” (Harris), when he was mayor of the city when he was Attorney General of San Francisco. Trump loathes Newsom not only retroactively, but also preemptively. The 57-year-old is one of the Democrats’ few great hopes and is already considered a promising presidential candidate for 2028. He has everything: an eloquent speaker, a good-looking family man, a reformed alcoholic. A Kennedyesque figure, he is at the same time a poster boy for the old left and an enemy of the new right, who brand him as a representative of the corrupt political establishment.

And then there is his country, which Trump has his eye on. The Golden State is deep blue, a Democratic stronghold. In the November elections, Trump lost the 54 Californian electors by 20 percentage points. Only in 2020 it was almost 30 percent. Trump doesn’t have much to lose here, but he has a lot to gain in the future. After all, he has already made it clear that he sees the constitutional limit of two terms in office more as a serving suggestion.

The attacks on Newsom are far from the first time that Trump has politicized a natural disaster. As president, he used his power over the Fema disaster control agency to bring opponents within and outside the party into submission. If a governor stepped out of line, Trump threatened to withhold federal funds if the worst happened.

Even later he made use of man-made/natural circumstances to the detriment of his opponents. In October 2024, he incorporated the devastating hurricanes “Helene” and “Milton” into his election campaign. He claimed that the White House was discriminating against conservative disaster areas, handing over shillings to hurricane victims and directing much-needed relief funds to illegal migrants instead. Without exception, false reports, as it quickly became clear, but they couldn’t be caught again. The fairy tale of elitist Democrats who don’t care about the little people in stormy times was unraveled.

As macabre as it is: luxury villas of celebrities burning ablaze and an apocalyptic red sunrise over the City of Angels touch far more people than tattered huts in the no-man’s land of the Appalachians. From an ice-cold PR perspective, the fiery misery in and around Los Angeles is truly a sight to behold. Donald Trump stopping the flames. He who leads the country out of catastrophe.

A sweet-sounding promise. Trump didn’t skimp on these during his four years in exile. But in contrast to the numerous vague and flexible claims, he actually has to deliver in California. And almost immediately.

It’s a good thing that his hated predecessor “Sleepy Joe” (Biden) has already started in his final stages. He declared California a disaster area, immediately released funds and secured federal funds for the next 180 days.

Trump, however, tried to lower expectations shortly before work began. “NO MONEY IN FEMA. THAT’S WHAT JOE BIDEN LEFT ME. THANKS JOE!”, . A lie. Biden, even as a “lame duck,” as outgoing presidents are called, replenished the disaster fund with a fresh $27 billion in December (against initial resistance from Republicans).

When asked by a reporter whether Biden believed the Trump administration would continue aid payments to Los Angeles, “I pray to God they do.” How good that his disciples celebrate Trump as a kind of messiah.