But his latest revenge may be going a little too far: Trump wants to let the entire state of California—the biggest blue state–burn to a crisp unless it kowtows to him on taxes and water.
And that’s drawn the ire of California Professional Fire Fighters President Brian Rice, who heads the state branch of the International Association of Fire Fighters. Trump “would play with their [Californians’] lives and their homes if he doesn’t get what he wants,” says Rice.
Trump issued his threat during a September 14 press conference at his ocean-side golf club in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. He started talking about the state’s wildfires, which are burning fiercely this year, as they have for at least the last five years, during record severe drought.
Trump declared that if elected to a new White House term, he’ll withhold federal fire aid from the state unless Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom kowtows to his wishes on water policy and tax policy.
If Newsom—whom Trump labelled “Newscum”—doesn’t agree, “We won’t give him money to put out all his fires. And if we don’t give him all the money to put out fires, he’s got problems.”
The federal fire aid law lets state and local governments seek reimbursement for three-fourths of extraordinary firefighting costs.
Just one of the eight largest fires, the Line Fire, “has led to extensive evacuations and power outages in CA and NV,” IAFF tweeted on September 10, accompanying a picture. “The fire has spread across over 25,000 acres in the San Bernardino National Forest with containment currently at 5%.” It’s now half contained, state emergency response data shows.
As of the evening of September 16, 6,195 fires burned 994,837 acres. There have been 431,043 emergency responses. Some 1,406 buildings have gone up in smoke and another 250 have been damaged. One civilian has been killed.
Fire Fighters—union members—are battling the blazes, which destroy forests and homes, incinerate other structures and generally wreak havoc. Convicted felon Trump, of course, blamed the blazes on Democratic forest fire policies.
“Countless Californians are in harm’s way as they heed evacuation orders” from the fiery threat, California Fire Fighters President Rice retorted. “Nevertheless, former President Trump expressed that he would play with their lives and their homes if he doesn’t get what he wants.
Would rather let California burn
“He would rather watch our state burn in the name of his political games, than to send help if he were to become president again,” Rice retorted.
Rice said Trump uttered “a similar sentiment” in 2018 when “the Camp Fire, California’s deadliest wildfire,” killed 85 people. “It is shocking that we have a presidential candidate who is threatening our public safety and doesn’t even care what the consequences are to firefighters and the public.
“This has become a serious public safety issue” for firefighters and everyone else. “His rhetoric is dangerous, his ideas on public safety are dangerous, and his ignorant rhetoric has grown exponentially. It is a disgrace to our great nation and to every Californian that this man has a platform”—the Republican nomination—“to threaten our livelihoods, safety, families and our state.”
Trump didn’t specify which tax and water policies he wants Gov. Newsom to worship. His tax plans for a second presidential term are well-known: A second massive tax cut for corporations and the rich and tax increases for everybody else.
Those hikes would include a 10 percent tariff on all imported goods, which the corporate class would pass on to customers. And Trump says nary a word about the fact that his eight-year-old tax cuts for the poor and the middle class—which didn’t cut very much for them—expire at the end of next year.
He also said little about his water policy, and water is a big deal in California. Conservative corporate agribusiness growers take a lot of it, from the Sierra Nevada mountain runoff and the wetter, northern part of the state, leaving the remainder for the parched millions of people in Los Angeles, Orange County, Riverside and surrounding areas.
But Trump’s platform, aka Project 2025, provides a clue, when it discusses the Republican view of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Wetlands of the U.S. regulation. The Republican version of that rule “makes clear what is and is not a ‘navigable water’ and respects private property rights.“
It advocates “legislation, if necessary, to codify the definition…that ‘waters of the United States’ can refer only to ‘relatively permanent, standing or continuously flowing bodies of water…as opposed to ordinarily dry channels through which water occasionally or intermittently flows.’”
So waters of the U.S. would cover the first 200 miles of the Pacific Ocean, extending out from the state’s shoreline, but not the Los Angeles River. It’s a trickle—and often dry—running near downtown L.A., past where Spanish missionaries in the late 1700s founded what would become a megacity.
Newsom’s response to Trump’s threat to cut off federal cash was a message to taxpayers in other states: If he can do this to us, he can do this to you, too.
“Every voter should be made aware of this. @realDonaldTrump just admitted he will block emergency disaster funds to settle political vendettas,” Newsom wrote. “Today it’s California’s wildfires. Tomorrow it could be hurricane funding for North Carolina or flooding assistance for homeowners in Pennsylvania. Donald Trump doesn’t care about America—he only cares about himself.”
Unlike California, North Carolina and Pennsylvania are swing states this fall.
CONTRIBUTOR
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