Explaining the Right: Why are conservatives lying about California’s fires?
At least 10 people have died and thousands of homes and businesses have been destroyed in the Los Angeles-area wildfires over the past week. Despite the chaos playing out on screens across the world, conservatives and Republicans have chosen to go on the attack.
As has often been the case, Donald Trump led the charge.
Trump made up a lie that California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a frequent critic of Trump, refused to sign a “water restoration declaration,” which supposedly limited the availability of water to fight the fires. Trump also falsely alleged that water in the area has been limited due to environmental policy protecting an endangered fish.
At the same time, Elon Musk (who spent millions to elect Trump) invoked a bigoted and unsubstantiated allegation that efforts to diversify the Los Angeles Fire Department had contributed to problems in responding to the fires.
“DEI means people DIE,” Musk wrote, referring to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
Musk also promoted right-wing lies that the city’s emergency response funds had been cut in favor of diversity programs.
Trump’s allies in conservative media have made similar arguments about diversity programs purportedly affecting the fire department. Newsmax TV host Rob Finnerty called the devastation “death by DEI,” while Fox News host Laura Ingraham complained that California had prioritized “DEI, illegal immigrants” instead of emergency response.
This isn’t new behavior for the right. When California was hit by wildfires in 2018, when Trump was president, he pushed lies about Newsom and the state government purportedly wasting water.
At the same time conservatives are pushing these attacks on environmentalism and equality, they have largely ignored the role that climate change has had in contributing to conditions that make it easier for massive fires to begin and spread.
But why is the right doing all this?
California is one of the most Democratic states within the United States. In the 2024 presidential election, Vice President Kamala Harris defeated Trump by 20 percentage points. In fact, the last time a Republican presidential candidate won California was in 1988 (and even then, George H.W. Bush won it by less than 4 percentage points).
Over the decades, conservative politicians and right-wing media have frequently used California as subject of scorn and derision because of the state’s liberal politics. California has embraced many progressive policies on the environment, gender equality, LGBTQ+ equality, and racial equality, while also being the home to the entertainment industry and much of the tech industry.
When something bad happens in California, conservatives flock to the issue to use it as “proof” that liberalism and the Democratic Party are also bad. Instead of expressing solidarity with fellow Americans dealing with tragedy, a figure like Trump mocks California’s leader as “Governor Gavin Newscum.”
Ironically, at least part of the blame for the severity of wildfires can be attributed to conservatism. For years, the right has downplayed the extent of climate change, and Trump has repeatedly claimed climate change is a “hoax.” The Republican Party has mocked policies like the Green New Deal meant to fight climate change, and opposed the Inflation Reduction Act, which invested billions in clean-energy efforts.
Climate change is real, and Americans (along with the rest of the world) will have to deal with the fallout in the form of severe weather and massive fires. Conservatives could admit they were wrong and made the problem worse—or they could push lies about water and mock an American state while lives are lost.
They have chosen the latter and are likely to continue doing so.