Los Angeles is currently ablaze in one of the most devastating wildfires in recent memory. Fire departments are overwhelmed, thousands lost their homes and some their lives. Donald Trump’s only response? “I told you so.”
In a Truth Social post, Trump shared an image of a flaming hillside bearing the words “TRUMP WAS RIGHT” in a pastiche of the Hollywood sign. The internet was aghast. “Imagine what kind of sad, sick, twisted f—- you would have to be to post this,” wrote on user one X.
Trump’s ghoulish response to the wildfires is far from the first time he has reacted to the plight of Californians with calumny. According to a former staffer, Trump once withheld wildfire aid from suffering Californians until he was informed just how many people in the state voted for him in 2018. California governor Gavin Newsome called the incident a “glimpse into the future” of a second Trump presidency. That future, it seems, is now.
Trump has made Newsome (who he often calls “Newscum”) a frequent target of his social media rants. The president-elect recently tore into Newsome in a post on Truth Social, blaming California’s current catastrophe on Newsome’s support of the “water restoration declaration” which Trump claims diverted California’s water away from Californians in order to protect a local fish species. According to Newsome’s office, no such declaration exists, it is “pure fiction.”
Another user suggested an edit to Trump’s doctored Hollywood sign: “Gore was Right.” Climate change is indeed an aggravating factor in the disaster – 2024 was the hottest year in recorded history. According to scientists, human-caused changes to the Earth’s climate are responsible for a “new era” of extreme weather marked by drought, heat and supercharged storms—hurricanes like Helene and Milton were only the beginning. Despite the alarming predictions of scientists, Donald Trump has promised to further deregulate the fossil fuel industry, making good on his campaign slogan to “drill, baby, drill.”
“America’s next president” writes another user, “truly sickening.” Trump’s cold-hearted response to California’s wildfires is far from the first time he acted un-presidential in the face of disaster. After Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico during Trump’s first term in office, the president-elect visited the island to basketball-shoot rolls of paper towels into a crowd. It was later revealed that the Trump administration purposefully blocked aid from reaching the island, and Trump reportedly said that he didn’t want Puerto Rico to receive “a single dollar.”
While many were horrified at the president-elect’s callous response to the California wildfires, MAGA supporters used the president-elect’s bad-taste meme to drag California’s officials, who they claim botched the wildfire response in despite Trump’s warning in order to focus on “harboring illegals” and “providing trans surgeries for children.”
The clapback against MAGA was swift.
While many MAGA supports believe that Trump is telling the truth, many of the president-elect’s statements surrounding the wildfires have been misinformation. While Trump has claimed that Newsome’s water-management policies are to blame, experts believe that the fault lies with the city’s infrastructure. The “entirely foreseeable” wildfires were the result of dry conditions and fierce winds caused by climate change the experts say. Despite what Trump would have his supporters believe, the weather is not under Democrat control.
Published: Jan 14, 2025 01:47 am