Right-Wing Pundits Blame DEI and Democrats in Predictable Deluge of Wildfire Misinformation

Experts generally agree that dry weather, strong winds, and climate change are to blame for the catastrophic firestorms in Southern California, which since Tuesday have roared across more than 25,000 acres and displaced tens of thousands of people. President-elect Donald Trump, however—together with his merry band of sycophantic right-wing pundits—is insisting that Democratic wokeism is somehow at fault.

“Now the ultimate price is being paid,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA!”

The politicization of the California fires, and the maelstrom of misinformation swirling around them, closely mirrors the dangerous, fantastical discourse that surrounded Hurricanes Helene and Milton in the fall. Then, as now, Republican politicians and media figures have sought to score partisan political points, downplay the role of climate change, and sow doubt among observers across the world and on the ground.

The baseless conspiracies and rumor-mongering generally fall under two thematic umbrellas: diversity and inclusion and environmentalism. Under that first heading, right-wing media figures, celebrities and Trump allies—including tech billionaire Elon Musk and the president-elect’s son, Donald Trump Jr.—have railed against LA’s fire chief, Kristin Crowley, and her stated commitment to reforming LAFD’s demonstrably toxic culture. Crowley, a 25-year veteran of the department and the first woman and gay person in her role, took over the department in 2022, following a spate of discrimination and harassment scandals.

Conservatives have used her identity—and her biography on the LAFD website—to argue without evidence that she prioritized diverse hiring over wildfire preparedness. “They prioritized DEI over saving lives and homes,” Musk wrote in one post, amidst a volley of anti-Crowley reshares. “Can we rename DEI to DIE since that’s what seems to happen to the people downstream of those who place woke virtue signaling far above competency?!?,” Trump Jr. echoed on Truth Social. Matt Walsh, a popular podcaster in the Ben Shapiro media empire, claimed on X that “Los Angeles deliberately set out to exclude white men from becoming firefighters, and now they don’t have enough firefighters to prevent their city from burning to the ground.”

The conservative actor James Woods, whose home was destroyed in this week’s blaze, has also been particularly critical: “Refilling the water reservoirs would have been a welcome priority, too, but I guess she had too much on her plate promoting diversity,” Woods posted Wednesday, referencing reports that fire hydrants ran dry in parts of Los Angeles.

But that is not due to reservoir issues, the LA Department of Water and Power has explained. Instead, the fires have put unprecedented strain on the city’s resources, using up water reserves faster than officials can refill them again. In fact, there is no water shortage in southern California at present, and there is “nothing to be done with water that would have changed the course of these fires,” according to one senior fellow at the non-partisan PPIC Water Policy Center.

Still, the subject of water management or mismanagement has fast-become a right-wing hobbyhorse. On Truth Social, Trump himself claimed that Gov. Gavin Newsom chose to divert water supplies away from Californians to protect an endangered fish, the Delta smelt. “This is the fish Gavin Newscum burned California down in order to save,” the Republican operative Roger Stone wrote on X. Elsewhere, MAGA posters have dubbed Newsom an “ecoterrorist” or mocked up AI images of him kissing a fish while a house burns behind him.

Water policy in California is, of course, both wildly complex and controversial—and it’s true that Republicans and Democrats have historically tangled over water priorities. But Newsom never refused an agreement that would have directed more water to California, on behalf of a fish or otherwise, one water policy expert told MSNBC. On Wednesday, Newsom’s office responded to Trump with an even blunter statement: “That,” they wrote on X, “is pure fiction.”