As the deadly wildfires in Southern California continue to do brutal damage, President Joe Biden was able to view some of the damage and pledge federal support. “We’re prepared to [do] anything and everything as long as it takes,” the Democrat said.
To that end, as The Hill reported, the White House said it’s deploying additional resources to the area, “including five U.S. Forest Service air tankers, 10 federal firefighting helicopters and dozens of fire engines from the Forest Service.”
Around the same time, the president’s successor also turned his attention to the crisis in California, though Donald Trump had a different message in mind. The New York Times reported:
President-elect Donald J. Trump blamed California’s Democratic governor on Wednesday for the failure to contain fires engulfing parts of the Los Angeles area, accusing the state’s government of letting environmental policies run amok. … Mr. Trump’s angry commentary came even as Southern California residents were fleeing three separate fires. Two people have been confirmed to have died from the fires, and authorities were warning the area’s residents to be ready to evacuate their homes at a moment’s notice.
The president-elect’s latest political offensive began late Wednesday morning, when Trump published an item to his social media platform that referred to the California governor as “Gavin Newscum” — as if this were an appropriate time for an incoming national leader to peddle juvenile taunts. The Republican added that he considers Newsom to be “incompetent,” adding, “He is the blame [sic] for this.”
Roughly two hours later, Trump kept the offensive going with a follow-up item that again referred to the governor as “Newscum” and condemned the local government’s efforts to contain the fires. Sixteen minutes later, the president-elect turned his attention to the incumbent in the White House: “NO WATER IN THE FIRE HYDRANTS, NO MONEY IN FEMA. THIS IS WHAT JOE BIDEN IS LEAVING ME. THANKS JOE!”
A half-hour later, the Republican was still going. Pointing to the ongoing catastrophe, Trump concluded, “Let this serve, and be emblematic, of the gross incompetence and mismanagement of the Biden/Newscum Duo. January 20th cannot come fast enough!”
It probably won’t surprise anyone to learn that Trump is peddling ill-timed nonsense. In fact, a spokesperson for the governor, referring to some of the details in the president-elect’s missives, told USA Today that the Republican was offering the public was “pure fiction.”
But stepping back, a related (and familiar) problem is coming into focus. The New York Times’ David French noted this week that Trump “is at his absolute worst in a crisis.” The columnist, whose observation was unrelated to developments in California, added in reference to the president-elect, “He is not a man who is ready to meet important and dangerous moments.”
We’re constantly confronted with evidence to bolster the point. Last week, Trump saw a deadly attack in New Orleans and responded with ugly lies and bizarre conspiracy theories. In the recent past, there was a deadly hurricane in North Carolina, to which the Republican also responded with a different set of ugly lies and bizarre conspiracy theories. Part of this is likely the result of Trump’s lack of empathy. It probably doesn’t help that he’s far too indifferent to the substance of governing to offer constructive recommendations, which leaves him with little more than cheap, partisan attacks. But French’s point also rings true: When there’s a real crisis, Americans are suffering and it’s time to get to work finding solutions, Americans simply can’t count on Trump to tell the truth, to care about what matters, to demonstrate real character, to communicate like a grown-up or to resist the urge to exploit tragedies for political gain. What Americans are seeing is a reminder of who Trump is — and why he’s so ill-suited for national leadership.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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