US President-elect Trump slams officials handling LA wildfires, calls them ‘incompetent’

WASHINGTON: US President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday slammed the officials responsible for handling raging wildfires in Los Angeles, calling them “incompetent.” Taking to the social media platform Truth Social, Trump criticised the situation, stating that it was one of the worst catastrophes in US history.

“The fires are still raging in L.A. The incompetent pols have no idea how to put them out. Thousands of magnificent houses are gone, and many more will soon be lost. There is death all over the place. This is one of the worst catastrophes in the history of our country. They just can’t put out the fires. What’s wrong with them?” the President-elect said.

Meanwhile, according to the New York Post, citing officials, at least 16 people have been killed in the wildfires and nearly 200,000 have been displaced. As many as 10,000 structures, along with entire residential neighbourhoods have been destroyed.

Canadian aerial firefighting aircraft readying for another pass over the Southern California wildfires.

Always here to help our American friends. ????????????????pic.twitter.com/JwpNQIiEi8

— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) January 12, 2025

As per the New York Post, while the Sunset fire has been contained, the Hurst fire has burnt 771 acres of land, the Kenneth fire has burnt 959 acres, the Eaton fire has burnt 13,690 acres, and the most destructive impact has been of the Palisades fire, which has burnt 19,978 acres of land. At least 35,000 acres of land have burnt down, an area about two-and-a-half times the size of Manhattan.

On Sunday (local time), California’s Governor, Gavin Newsom warned people against falling for misinformation regarding the Southern Californian wildfires.

In a post on X, he said, “A lot of misinformation out there. Just launched a new site to ensure the public has access to fact-based data around the Southern CA wildfires. The TRUTH: — CA did NOT cut our firefighting budget. We have nearly doubled the size of our firefighting army and built the world’s largest aerial firefighting fleet. — CA has INCREASED forest management ten-fold since we took office. – California will NOT allow for looting.” (ANI)