President-elect Donald J. Trump earlier Sunday leveled fresh criticism of officials tasked with fighting the Los Angeles wildfires, calling them “incompetent” and questioning why the blazes have not been put out.
“The fires are still raging in Los Angeles,” Trump wrote on his Truth social site. “Incompetent politicians don’t know how to eliminate them.”
Trump’s comments indicate that the fires and officials’ response are likely to be high on his domestic political agenda when he takes office on January 20. His long-standing feud with California Governor Gavin Newsom has escalated again.
California politicians have faced criticism of the fires since they broke out on Tuesday, including questions about how local and state authorities prepared for the response and how they grew into massive blazes so quickly.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has had to grapple with questions about whether adequate warning was given of the possibility of devastating fires and why there were shortages of water and firefighters during the initial response . At a news conference on Thursday, she sidestepped questions about her absence from Ghana at the time of the fire – where she was on a previously scheduled official visit – and said “any assessment of errors or failures by any agency, department, individual” ” “It will come later.
Newsom, a Democrat, has also resisted criticism from Trump, who accused him of failing to control the fires and claimed he blocked water from being poured into Southern California over concerns it would affect threatened fish.
Newsom’s press office responded in a statement that the “Water Restoration Declaration” that Trump accused him of not signing did not exist. “The governor’s focus is on protecting people, not playing politics, and ensuring firefighters have all the resources they need,” the statement read.
Newsom and Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Katherine Badger invited Trump to tour the city’s fire damage. He has yet to publicly respond to those invitations.
As of Sunday morning, the fires had killed at least 16 people and destroyed at least 12,000 buildings, officials said. Trump referenced that disaster in a post on Sunday.
“Thousands of magnificent homes have disappeared, and many more will soon disappear,” he wrote. “There was death everywhere. This was one of the worst disasters in our country’s history. They just couldn’t put out the fire. What happened to them?
His post did not mention any officials by name.
