Trump’s inaccurate claims about California fires mocked by late-night hosts
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The late-night hosts are mocking Donald Trump over his response to the deadly California wildfires raging through the Los Angeles area.
At least seven people have been killed and countless others injured as fast-moving wildfires continue to tear across the outskirts of Los Angeles, leaving thousands of firefighters battling desperately to extinguish the blaze.
Trump blamed the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, in an eyebrow-raising Truth Social post that inaccurately claimed he refused to sign a “water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water” to help put out the fires.
According to Trump, this declaration, which Newsom’s office said was “non-existent”, would have allowed “excess rain and snow melt from the North to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way”.
Find all live updates on the California fires here
Seth Meyers hit out at Trump for “lying about the water that brave firefighters are using to battle the wildfire”.
He commended the firefighters for “doing courageous work”, adding: “And then there’s the president-elect, who has decided to chime in, not to help, but to spread bulls*** that will just make the emergency response more difficult.”
Desi Lydic, appearing on The Daily Show, called Trump “one of the country’s leading blame producers”, questioning another of the president-elect’s claims – namely that Newsom didn’t sign the non-existent declaration as he “wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt by giving it less water”.
Lydic told viewers: “For the record, no, the LA fires have nothing to do with smelt. But in Trump’s defence, words are hard, and smelt only has one syllable, while climate change has three.”
Officials said on Thursday (9 January) that while progress had been made on the Sunset, Woodley, Hurst and Sunswept Fires, more “extreme fire behaviour” and wind gusts of up to 60 mph are continuing to challenge firefighting efforts.
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Los Angeles Sheriff Robert Luna said fire-ravaged neighbourhoods in west LA “look like a bomb was dropped in them”.
Police have announced the arrest of an arson suspect, who allegedly attempted to light a fire in Woodland Hills near the area’s newest blaze, the Kenneth Fire.
Many Hollywood stars, including Anthony Hopkins, Billy Crystal and Paris Hilton, have lost their homes in the fires.
Trump will be inaugurated as the 47th US president on 20 January.
