L.A. Mayor Slams Trump's Response to Wildfires, Says Ensure Aid 'Instead of Hitting Golf Course'
Gabriel Olsen/Getty Images; Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is calling out President Donald Trump for his lack of response to the ongoing devastating wildfires ravaging California.
While speaking on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday, Garcetti called on Trump and Congress to take actionable steps to ensure aid for firefighters risking their lives against the current wildfires that have claimed the lives of at least 33 and burned through more than 4.7 million acres.
“Instead of hitting the golf course or going on vacation, the president and Congress respectively should sit down and make sure there is assistance for these brave men and women who are protecting our lives and our property,” Garcetti said. (Most recently, the president went golfing at Trump National Golf Club in Potomac Falls, Virginia, on Aug. 30.)
On Saturday, the White House announced Trump will travel to California on Monday. He is scheduled to meet with local and federal fire and emergency officials.
“It's taken three weeks. I'm glad he's coming, but we need much more help," Garcetti said. "When we have firefighters dying on the line and Washington refuses to help states and refuses to help local governments that are the first responders to emergencies like this, it's unconscionable.”
“He is going to come out here and probably tell us, ‘I'm going to send you rakes instead of more help,’ ” the mayor added. "We need actual help, material help, not based on our party affiliation or how we voted."
JOSH EDELSON//Getty Images Bear Fire in California
In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly criticized Democrats in California for the fires. According to Politico, he went so far as to say the fires started because officials were insufficiently raking the dead forestry, and that he was going to make them "pay for it."
“I see again the forest fires are starting," he said at a rally in Pennsylvania in August. "They’re starting again in California. I said, you gotta clean your floors, you gotta clean your forests — there are many, many years of leaves and broken trees and they’re like, like, so flammable, you touch them and it goes up.
"Maybe we’re just going to have to make them pay for it because they don’t listen to us,” Trump added.
The president previously criticized California in 2018 when a trio of devastating fires burned across the state. At the time, Trump threatened to cut off federal funding if the state did not remedy what he called the “gross mismanagement of the forests.”
News of Trump's planned visit came hours after the president tweeted his thanks to the tens of thousands of firefighters and first responders “who are battling wildfires across California, Oregon and Washington.”
He also claimed to have "approved 37 Stafford Act Declarations, including Fire Management Grants to support their brave work."
