The president of California’s professional firefighters union said over the weekend that former President Trump “should be ashamed” of his threat to withhold federal aid from the state’s firefighters if elected.
Brian K. Rice, president of the California Professional Firefighters Union, which represents more than 35,000 firefighters, said in a statement Saturday night that it was “shocking that we have a presidential candidate who threatens our public safety.”
“His rhetoric is dangerous, his ideas about public safety are dangerous, and his ignorant rhetoric has grown exponentially,” Rice said.
At a news conference Friday at his Rancho Palos Verdes golf course, Trump said that in a second term he would stop sending federal aid to California to fight the wildfires unless Gov. Gavin Newsom — whom he has repeatedly called “Newscum” — implements his policy priorities on issues such as water and taxes.
The former president’s threat comes as he discusses California’s water and land management policies, water allocations to farmers and protection of the endangered Delta smelt, which Trump said “is not surviving anyway.”
“With this group, everything is dead,” Trump said of California’s Democratic politicians.
“The auto industry is dead, the water that comes in here is dead, and Gavin ‘Newscum’ is going to sign these papers. And if he doesn’t sign these papers, we’re not going to give him any money to put out all his fires. And if we don’t give him all the money to put out the fires, he’s going to be in trouble. He’s a very bad governor.”
Trump did not specify which documents he was referring to.
Newsom responded on X that Trump was revealing who he was.
“Every voter should know this. @realDonaldTrump just admitted he would withhold disaster relief funds to pursue political vendettas,” Newsom wrote. “Today it’s California wildfires. Tomorrow it could be hurricane funding in North Carolina or flood relief for homeowners in Pennsylvania. Donald Trump doesn’t care about America, he only cares about himself.”
Rice compared those comments to Trump’s 2018 visit to the fire-ravaged paradise, when he said amid the ruins: “We have to take care of the soil, you know? The forest soil.”
He then referred to Finland, saying that the country is focused “on sweeping and cleaning. They have no problem.”
On Friday, Trump compared California’s forests to those in Austria, where he said trees don’t catch fire thanks to good forest management.
“The forests are so fragile because there’s no place like California,” he said. “I go to Austria, and the Austrian president says to me, ‘We have trees that are much more flammable than the ones in California. We never have forest fires.’ Because the Austrians maintain their forests.”
Austrian officials have previously denied Trump’s claims about their forests, including that they are home to “more explosive” trees.
“To be clear: no, we do not have exploding trees in Austria!” wrote then-agriculture minister Elisabeth Köstinger in an article published in the London-based Independent in 2020.
“Donald Trump’s statements about Austrian forests may be amusing to many people,” Köstinger wrote. “For us, it is also an opportunity to highlight the beauty of our forests and our country as a whole, while clarifying the truth behind these controversial statements.”
In recent days, wildfires have ravaged more than 100,000 acres in Southern California, displaced thousands of residents of mountain communities and burned dozens of homes.
“Today, thousands of firefighters are on the front lines battling wildfires across the state, and countless Californians are in danger as they comply with evacuation orders,” Rice said in her statement. “Nevertheless, former President Trump has said he will gamble with their lives and homes if he doesn’t get his way. He would rather see our state burn for the sake of his political games than send help if he becomes president again.”
The threat from the former president, he said, constitutes “a serious public safety problem.”
“It is a disgrace to our great nation and to every Californian that this man has a platform to threaten our livelihoods, our safety, our families and our state,” he wrote.