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Wildfire Oval Office conference sticks it to FEMA, Newsom and the Autopen [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-06-11
It was supposed to be a news conference yesterday about what the Trump administration was going to do to stop and deal with wildfires. There was Trump, Brooke Rollins, Doug Burgum, Tusli Gabbard, Russell Vought and newspeople. It started about wildfire management, veered off into saying FEMA had to go, and how states were better equipped, the LA protests and even the Autopen.
Wildfires are going to be controlled by cutting down trees. That's just about the only thing they said about what they're planning to do.
Tulsi Gabbard, for some unknown reason, was talking about the hurricane season, and then she turned on FEMA.
Gabbard: And FEMA stands prepared and has been working with all our regions on training, redeploying resources, making sure that individuals are out there ready to respond to each state as they bring the necessary resources to take care of their people. But also, sir, you've been very clear that you want to see FEMA eliminated as it exists today. So I'm preparing all of these governors that they will have more control over the decisions respond to their communities so that they can help it happen faster.
She veers off into talking about the hurricane season again, before she gets back to her original attack on FEMA.
Gabbard: But we all know from the past that FEMA has failed thousands, if not millions of people. And President Trump does not want to see that continue into the future. So, this agency needs to go away as it exists. And we need to have a response to states that supports them --- when terrible things come and when the worst day of their lives happens to where the financial resources are. But they have decision making power right there in the state to respond.
Double talk. FEMA is ready to help, but it's going to go away. Federal resources are not going to the states, because the states are already so rich they can clean up after disasters and fix them themselves.
She goes into how FEMA has been so responsive to tornadoes recently. If I remember, no resources have been sent to help them at all. Trump didn't declare disaster zones. More double talk.
Trump: So, we want to wean off FEMA. And we want to bring it down to the state level. A little bit like education. We're moving it back to the states, so governors can handle it. That's why they're governors. Now, if they can't handle it they shouldn't be governor.
What the hell is the federal government for, except doing things on a large scale? That's what FEMA is all about. After a disaster, the resources aren't there in the state, they need to be brought in by the federal government. It's like they don't have a clue what FEMA was created for. And frankly, nobody's going to know disasters are coming because they've cut the funding for NOAA to be able to predict them.
Trump: They will give each other a hand. But the famous thing has not been a very successful experiment.
It's been working just fine since 1978 when Jimmy Carter created it. It's not an experiment, it's a job.
Trump: [FEMA] It's extremely expensive. And again when you have a tornado or a hurricane are you have a problem of any kind, in a state, that's what you have governors for. They're supposed to fix those problems.
Okay, governors have more power than the federal government, do they? A single state can deal with disasters that hit their very resources to respond. This isn't about states rights, it's about making the state survive and the federal government abrogating its responsibility.
Then Trump gives all of them a lesson in forest management. You sweep the forest floor. And you get rid of deadwood. That's it. Trump has no concern at all for all the living creatures that depend on that forest floor debris and the deadwood. There goes a ecosystem that Trump doesn't care about.
Doug Burgum's solution is to cut down trees for timber as well as removing them as being fire hazards. That, and managing forests for us by using satellites to look at them.
Trump: And we have some of the best timber anywhere in the world and we don't use it. Lee Zeldin has done an incredible job in that regard from environmental restrictions that are ridiculous....We're sending billions of dollars to California all the time because obviously in California they are not doing a good job in any way shape or form on any other thing either.
Sure, let's get rid of all those environmental restrictions. We've done it so we can drill, baby, drill, and ruin the Alaska wilderness. Alaskans won't care much about it, because they'll be so rich from the oil, not.
Reporter: Mr. President? Mr. President? Will you invoke the Insurrection Act to deal with the situation in California?
Trump: If there's an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We'll see. But I can tell you. Last --- last night was terrible. The night before that was terrible. We have, as you've seen, it was on most of your networks, people with big heavy hammers pounding the concrete and pounding the curbs, pounding and breaking up all --- and handing these big chunks of concrete to people.
This is now Trump's new repeatable claim. He's now said it at press gaggles, the speech at Fort Bragg, now in the Oval Office. There are no videos of people hammering concrete into pieces and handing it to people in a line. I've looked. If anyone finds one, put a link to it in comments and I'll change this.
The other new line is that Los Angeles would be burning down to the ground as bad as happened in the wildfires months ago. All that burned were cars. Trump just keeps making up new stuff as he goes, and then repeats, and repeats, and repeats.
Reporter: How will you determine whether or not there is an insurrection? And also -—
Trump: Well, take a look at what's happening. I mean, I could tell you that there were certain areas of that --- of Los Angeles last night, you could have called it an insurrection. It was terrible. But these are paid insurrectionists. They are paid troublemakers. They get money. And when you take a look at what they do. When they show up and everyone's saying what is he doing? He's pounding the curbs. This one guy's pounding the curb, breaking the curb, and handing pieces of granite. In some cases, it's granite, granite and concrete to other people. And they're running with it. And then we watch the other people. And they try and throw it into the face of the soldiers. Throw it into the face of the police.
He just can't give it up about pounding the curb, one time it's granite, the other time it's concrete. You don't find granite out on the city streets. Like I said, he's making stuff up as he goes, then realizes he's lied and changes it.
Then they get back to FEMA and Tulsi Gabbard is talking about the design of FEMA without any specifics at all. And why is Tulsi Gabbard speaking about it at all? She's the Director of National Intelligence, not the Secretary of the Interior. But, she says it will fit the president's vision. I think he needs new glasses. Again, the governors are going to handle it all. The federal government's getting out of handling emergencies, except if it's the border, or the trade deficit. Those, there's plenty of money for.
Reporter: And Mr. President, when was the last time you talked to Governor Newsom?
Trump: Um, a day ago. I called him up to tell him, you've got to do a better job. He's done a bad job, causing a lot of death and a lot of --- a lot of potential death.
Say what? Nobody has died during the protests. No protesters, no police, no National guard. He's just making it up just like the concrete breakers.
Trump: We had people that look in your face and they spit right in your face. Their animals. And these are paid insurrectionists. These are paid troublemakers. They're agitators. They're paid.
This is his other line about the protests. Everybody is paid. I'd like to see the payroll records. So far he hasn't talked about George Soros.
Trump: Do you think that somebody walks up to the curb and starts hammering pieces out, has all the equipment necessary and starts handing out to people to use as a weapon?
Again, show me the video, show me the link. All the equipment necessary. The only thing he's talked about is a hammer. People out there with concrete saws? They got battery powered ones now. He just repeats this over and over again.
Reporter: Pardon me, Mr. President, on those Marines, Governor Newsom described them as political pawns. I'm curious for your reaction to that? And what you see is the Marines role? And what are their rules of engagement?
Trump completely side steps the question, because he doesn't understand what rules of engagement mean. This is the second time today he's been asked. It didn't work the first time either.
Trump: But they're given instructions not to do this, not to do that. But in this case, they're trying their best. They were not able to handle it. It was out of control. When we got there, and I --- you have to remember, I've been here before. And I went by every rule. And I waited for the governors to say send in the National Guard.
He went by every rule. For what? He doesn't understand the rules of engagement are both for if you respond, and how you respond.
Then Trump rolls into Minneapolis, without mentioning the George Floyd protests, but saying that the governor was incompetent, who was of course, Tim Walz.
Next was back to Los Angeles would be burning to the ground if the National Guard had not been sent in.
Reporter: The Marines, is, a lot of people think, is an escalatory step though. These are guys who fight wars. Are you at all concerned that things could get out of hand with Marines in an American city?
Trump responds with the pieces of concrete, cars set on fire and the National Guard and never talks about the Marines.
After some back and forth about the Ten Commandments in schools in Texas and President Shinebaum of Mexico and Tim Walz in Minnesota, Trump asks Tulsi Gabbard to comment.
Gabbard: Absolutely. So, in 2020, I was a governor of a neighboring state to Tim Walz and watched him let his city burn....So Claudia Sheinbaum came out and encouraged more protests in LA. And I condemn her for that. She should not be encouraging violent protests that are going on.
President Sheinbaum did not say anything other than people have a right to protest.
Then she brings up Title X, and that authorizes Trump to send in the National Guard. It does nothing of the sort. There is a section of the National Guard in it, but it's about regulations. She hasn't read it. I have.
Trump then goes without transition into California building the high speed rail system. All Trump can do is criticize it. No suggestions, no federal money. He says the contractors are making lots of money from cost overruns. He should see what's going to happen with his new Qatar 747 brothel.
Reporter: Mr. President, these protests obviously started in reaction to these large scale ICE operations in Los Angeles. Should people expect to see similar operations in the rest of the country?
Trump: Yeah.
Reporter: And with similar protests and similar response?
Trump: Yeah, as you know, we're moving murderers out of the country that would put here by Biden or the Autopen. The Autopen really did it. I mean, the people, whether it's Lisa Monaco or whoever operated the Autopen, these are the criminals. The people are criminals and I love these criminals into our country. And I don't think Biden knew what the hell he was doing. I don't think he even knew about it.
Ah, yes. The Biden Autopen was running the country. He hasn't run his theory into the ground yet. At some point there will be an investigation, he's already promised it. James Comer will be happy to do an investigation for him. And Jasmine Crockett will point out the stupidity of it.
Trump then rants for a good amount of time on his greatest hits of illegal immigrants.
Then he comes back to the protests and all of the things he said before, just to cement it in his own mind that he's done a great job and everything's peaceful now because of him. He just loves patting himself on the back.
He comes back to letting the water into California because of the fires. He can't let go of that one either.
Reporter: Mr. President. Do you have any message to adversaries as the Army kicks off 250 year birthday celebrations?
Trump: I just think it's amazing. We're going to have a fantastic June 14th parade on Flag Day. It's going to be an amazing day. We have tanks. We have planes. We have all sorts of things.
He is really stoked about the parade. The rest of us think it's ridiculous show of trappings for a tyrant. He's turning into Kim Jong-un.
For the second time in 2 days he says that if we hadn't won World War II, we would be speaking German, or a little Japanese.
Trump: And if there's any protesters that want to come out, they will be met with very big force. By the way, for those people that want to protest, they're going to be met with very big force. And I haven't even heard about a protest, but you know, this is people that hate our country. But they will be met with very big force. Thank you very much everybody.
Trump will be disappointed. They aren't going to do protests in Washington DC for the very reason that there will be massive security for the parade. He won't be able to crush a rebellion there.That's what he wants. He wants violence so he can justify what he's doing. But that's not stopping people. Saturday is No Kings Day. Currently 1,800 protests planned across the country. They aren't silly enough to do one in DC.
At every interview, every speech, every press gaggle, every Truth Social post, Donald Trump shows his cognitive decline into anger and madness. Trump is stoking fires that will engulf him. He's got more than a month to go before my prediction that he would be out of office by July 20th. Six months. I am not sure now of the date of the outcome, but Trump keeps making it possible. You can't steal people's money out of their pockets, you can't take away their health insurance, cut their Social Security, take food out of their child's mouths with SNAP cuts, without there being a literal uprising. No Kings Day will be a portend for the future. The military parade and ICE attacks will be his undoing. And I'll just stand back and applaud.
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