CALIFORNIA/NATURAL DISASTERS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The president unleashed a fresh round of attacks on California as three catastrophic wildfires caused wide-spread evacuations and the loss of at least 31 lives. ‘With proper Forest Management, we can stop the devastation constantly going on in California,’ President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday [11-11-18]. ‘Get Smart!’ The tweet came a day after Trump threatened to withhold federal payments to California, drawing a wave of condemnation from those in the state. The comments once again pitted the president against firefighters fighting the blazes and scientists who say warming temperatures are at least partly to blame for increasingly dry vegetation across the state. Brian Rice, head of the 30,000-member California Professional Firefighters organization, released a blistering response to the president, calling his tweets ‘ill-informed, ill-timed and demeaning to victims and to our firefighters on the front lines.’ Rep. Ted Lieu reminded Trump that most forests in the state are federally managed. ‘CA only owns 2%. Guess who cut funding to forest management in the budget? YOU DID,’ Lieu wrote on Twitter.”
–Kelsey Tamborinno, “Trump keeps up criticism as California fires rage,” Politico, November 12, 2018 10:00 am