No view for the victims Trump offers blame instead of compassion for Los Angeles

US President-elect Donald Trump is blaming the governor of California for the devastating fires in Los Angeles. He refuses to allow the disaster to be exploited politically.

DPA

11.01.2025, 17:47

dpa

While the flames are raging in Los Angeles, the incoming president is hardly paying any attention to the victims. Instead, Donald Trump is making accusations and apportioning blame - and not being too precise with the truth.

He can manage the crisis much better, is the message the Republican wants to spread. He blames his long-standing political opponent Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California, for the disaster. One of Trump's untrue claims was that the US state's efforts to protect fish were to blame for the fact that the hydrants in the cities did not have enough water.

Newsom should "open the water main", Trump demanded on social media, misjudging the situation. "No more excuses from this incompetent governor."

When questioned by CNN, the attacked man reacted with incomprehension and indignation: "People are literally fleeing. People have lost their lives. Children have lost their schools. Families have been completely torn apart. Churches have been burned to the ground, and this person wants to politicize the whole thing," the governor explained as he stood in a destroyed neighborhood with a house behind him engulfed in flames.

What makes the fires even more aggressive this time are the powerful winds. The hurricane-force winds from earlier this week fanned the flames in unforeseen ways and hampered firefighting efforts enormously. The winds slowed down firefighting aircraft and put a strain on the hydrant system. "I've never seen anything like this in my 25 years in the fire department," said fire department spokesman Adam VanGerpen on CBS.

Janisse Quiñones, the head of the department responsible for water and energy supply, explained that the power of the fire had quadrupled the demand for extinguishing water. The hydrants are designed to fight fires in one or two houses, not hundreds.

The fires have already destroyed well over a hundred square kilometers. More than 180,000 people have been brought to safety. Even though California is unfortunately tried and tested when it comes to bushfires, the intensity is increasing. The wildfire season is getting longer and longer due to increasing drought and heat, partly caused by climate change.

Trump, meanwhile, blames natural disasters on the failures of his political opponents or force majeure. For his term in office, he has announced a curtailment of renewable energies and increased drilling for oil.

Biden refutes false claims

Without mentioning Trump by name, President Joe Biden countered the hydrant claims: he wanted to refute rumors, he emphasized with regard to the claims about the dry hydrants. "In case you haven't noticed, there is global warming," he added and emphasized: "Climate change is real."

Biden immediately released emergency federal aid for California as well as financial assistance for 180 days. However, any further federal action will have to go through the hands of Trump, who takes office on January 20. And he has a history of withholding or delaying funds to punish political opponents.

When asked about the impact of the fires, Trump referred to the damage to the Beverly Hills celebrity neighborhood. He had "many friends who live in those houses", he said. "The biggest houses, some of the most valuable houses in the world are destroyed. I don't even know." If the residents leave, it will be a blow to the state's finances, he said.