During a campaign event on Thursday, President Donald Trump offered scathing words regarding the massive wildfires that are currently raging across California, seemingly placing at least part of the blame for the phenomena on the state for a purported failure to maintain its forests. As relayed by The San Francisco Chronicle and other outlets, the president further threatened to withhold federal money from the state in order to “make them pay” for the perceived oversight.
“Maybe we’re just going to have to make them pay for it, because they don’t listen to us,” warned Trump. “We say you got to get rid of the leaves, you got to get rid of the debris, you got to get rid of the fallen trees.”
Trump continued by going into further detail about his theory on why the fires are spreading during the event, which took place in Old Forge, Pennsylvania.
“When a tree falls, after 13 to 14 months it becomes extremely dry. You look at some of these fires, they don’t really catch where the trees are growing because they’re wet. The water’s pouring up the tree. And they just don’t want to listen. They mocked us when I said that. You got to clean your floors.”
The president made similar comments, including a threat to withhold relief funds, in November 2018 in the wake of the Camp Fire. In doing so, he seemingly blamed California for its logging restrictions and for not doing more in the way of thinning out its forests, even as the Chronicle has assessed that the federal government controls more than half the forestland in California.
State and local agencies were said to oversee just 3 percent.
According to Cal Fire, via USA Today , more than 60,000 residents have been evacuated as a result of the wildfires, which are burning about 780 square miles across California. Furthermore, officials have stated that 175 structures — including homes — have been destroyed, while an additional 50,000 are under threat as of Thursday afternoon. Meanwhile, 33 civilians and firefighters have been injured and two people have died.
Cal Fire assistant deputy director Daniel Berlant revealed that there have been over 370 new wildfires over the past four days, while nearly two dozen major fires continue to blaze around California.
California isn’t the only place dealing with fires, however. As shared earlier by The Inquisitr , an Alaskan Bush People filming location in Washington has reportedly been torched by a huge wildfire as well.
