Trump blames “exploding trees” for wildfires in bizarre press pool
The world laughed at Donald Trump the last time he visited California to tour the damage from raging wildfires.
The ridicule from Finland was particularly harsh given that the U.S. president erroneously cited their forest management practices as the basis for his exhortations to California to rake their forests in order to prevent further devastating blazes.
Now in the midst of an unprecedented series of wildfires up and down the entire west coast of the United States — burning hotter and covering a larger acreage than ever — Trump is repeating his risible and ill-informed solution while taking a brief break from his coronavirus superspreader campaign rallies to tour the site of another catastrophic inferno that actual scientists attribute to the effects of the global climate emergency that the president has studiously ignored.
Arriving in Sacramento to meet with California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) and other state officials, the president continued to insist that a lack of forest maintenance was the primary issue at hand while mansplaining the concept of dried leaves and dead trees being susceptible to conflagrations as if the public were all kindergarten students.
"They can explode" — Trump's attempt to explain how poor forest management leads to wildfires is totally beyond parody pic.twitter.com/8yYmJ7lR8O
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 14, 2020
The stupidity of the president’s comments continued as he proceeded to meet Governor Newsom and his staff and learn that it is in fact the federal government that owns and is responsible for the “raking” of the vast majority of combustible forest land in the west.
Check out Trump's body language as Gavin Newsom informs him that the vast majority of forest land in California is owned by the federal government pic.twitter.com/HqoIDQYbd3
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 14, 2020
Trump’s stubborn denial of climate science continued as Wade Crowfoot, California Secretary for Natural Resources, appealed to the president to not ignore the science involved in determining the reasons behind the conditions that have led to the most devastating series of infernos in his state’s history.
President Trump, at today's wildfires briefing: "It'll start getting cooler. You just watch."
Wade Crowfoot, California Secretary for Natural Resources: "I wish science agreed with you."
President Trump: "Well, I don't think science knows actually." pic.twitter.com/EEbhUvdPVT
— The Recount (@therecount) September 14, 2020
Joe Biden, Trump’s opponent in the presidential race, saw Trump’s skepticism of the ability of science to explain natural phenomena and weighed in with his own verdict on the credibility of scientific experts in climate discussions.
It only took Biden two words to demolish Trump’s laughable ignorance and set himself up as the candidate still rooted in some modality of normalcy.
Science knows. https://t.co/Pwx8meY4zw
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 14, 2020
With Trump off to another opportunity for his maskless followers to infect each other — and everyone else they may come into contact within the next few weeks — one can only hope that the fires don’t produce so much smoke that Airforce One can’t find its way out of California., unless
Most of the people in the now-flaming state don’t want him here…unless he pitches in and starts wielding his rake.
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