Gavin Newsom Copies Trump, on Wildfires: ‘Make America Rake Again’
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is trying to reverse years of failure on wildfires by copying President Donald Trump’s proposal to “rake the forests,” announcing a new approach Tuesday: “Make America Rake Again.”
Wildfires have been one of the most glaring failures of the Newsom administration, with several major fires breaking out in the state on his watch, amid the governor’s record of lethargy, lies, and broken promises.
Democrats have mocked Trump for saying that California needed to “rake” its forests, meaning that the state should clear dead trees and brush that fuel fires. Newsom himself mocked Trump and his advice in a jocular appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers in 2020. “We have no raking policy,” Newsom said, mocking the “Make America Rake Again” signs that local residents had put up across the state.
On Tuesday — perhaps eying a potential presidential run of his own — Newsom opted for Trump’s rhetoric, and tried to turn it against the president.
In a press conference in Placer County, Newsom adopted the “Make America Rake Again” slogan, and tried to pass the buck to the federal government, arguing that California manages 3% of the state’s land, while the federal government manages 57%. He said that many recent fires started on federal land (ignoring the fact that other fires, including the devastating Los Angeles fires this past January, started entirely on state land.)
“The president of the United States needs to do more to back up his rhetoric with investments and resources to roll back the cuts,” Newsom said, commenting on recent federal funding cuts. He claimed that California is managing 2,200 projects to manage vegetation in state forests, and spending $350 million of state funds on clearing vegetation on federal lands.
“The Trump administration needs to step up and they need to fund these efforts, not just here in California, but throughout the Western United States,” he said, having just signed a $322 billion state budget Monday.
During the Palisades Fire, when confronted by CNN over the fact that local fire hydrants had run dry, Newsom commented that local people should try to “figure that out.” He had no answers of his own.
On Tuesday, he could not resist the temptation to mock Trump, despite stealing his slogan: “He quite literally thinks you should just go out and rake the forest,” said Newsom, suggesting the president is, in fact, stupid.
Newsom is currently seeking $40 billion in aid from Trump to deal with the L.A. fires, while also signing $50 million to fight the Trump administration in court over immigration policy and other national policy issues.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
