President-elect Donald Trump launched a new round of criticism on Sunday, targeting Democrats over their efforts to tame the Southern California wildfires. Trump’s Truth Social post is the latest in a series of attacks by the president-elect and his allies on California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
Trump’s criticism comes as the wildfires continue to rage in Los Angeles, with over 100,000 people evacuated and 16 deaths reported. Newsom and Bass have faced tough questions from their constituents and other elected officials, including those from their own party, over their handling of the disaster.
The broadsides from Trump and his supporters, including billionaire Elon Musk, have set the stage for fights to come between the president-elect and liberal cities and states ahead of his inauguration next week. The push-and-pull recalls some of the touchy, high-stakes interactions between Trump and top Democrats during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
Newsom has expressed frustration with Trump’s rhetoric, but has also invited him to come and survey the damage “to meet with the Americans affected by these fires, see the devastation firsthand, and join me and others in thanking the heroic firefighters and first responders who are putting their lives on the line.”
Meanwhile, Republicans have been less hesitant to cast blame in California, especially on Bass, who was in Ghana for an official visit when the first fire in the Pacific Palisades broke out. They are increasingly seeking to wield the disaster as a cudgel against Democrats, particularly the leaders of big, liberal-voting cities and states.
California Sen. Adam Schiff backed the proposal for an independent investigation into problems with local water supply and suggested the state “go further” and “do an independent commission review of all of this.”