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On Friday, January 24, President Donald Trump was expected to arrive in Los Angeles to see for himself the devastation caused by the recent wildfires, even as new, menacing fires broke out in Los Angeles County and elsewhere in southern California.
But it’s not just the fires that are out of control. So too is the political posturing of California Democrats who seem more interested in “fighting back” against our new president than putting the interests of Californians first by asking for his help.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has railed against Trump’s misinformation over the fires’ causes. As usual, when the left complain about misinformation, it’s really just things that are true that they don’t like. It may not be comfortable for Newsom that Trump is drawing attention to the incompetence and long-term policy failures that made this disaster so much more destructive than it need have been. But Trump is right on every point.
CALIFORNIA FIRES: ESSENTIAL PHONE NUMBERS FOR LOS ANGELES-AREA RESIDENTS AND HOW YOU CAN HELP THEM
My policy organization Golden Together just published a paper with practical ideas to help Los Angeles and our state after these fires. But the Trump visit provides an immediate chance to make things happen right now.
Why can’t California’s leftist politicians realize that Trump’s promise of a new “Golden Age” for America is also a golden opportunity for the Golden State? An opportunity to recover from these fires, rebuild faster and better, and to prevent anything like this from ever happening again.
There’s been a lot of talk about federal aid to California, and whether it should have “strings attached.” Ultimately, that will be determined in Congress, and as California Rep. Kevin Kiley told me in a recent interview, given California’s terrible track record of wasting federal money — for example COVID-relief funds — it’s vital to put safeguards around any funds that are sent to California.
But perhaps even more important than federal money is the expertise that Trump could offer. Here are three things California Democrats could ask him for, if they could just get over their pathetic political point-scoring.
1. Build, Baby, Build!
We have a builder as president. Someone who has a lifetime professional understanding of how to build things quickly, economically and to high quality.
California should take advantage of this unique opportunity. Ask Trump’s advice about how to get the job done in Los Angeles. We have the Super Bowl, soccer World Cup and the Olympic Games all coming up in Los Angeles in the next few years. We can’t afford to waste time. We need to Build, Baby, Build as well as Drill, Baby, Drill!
Trump is, above all things, a practical leader. He’s not interested in ideology, but outcomes. He just wants to get things done. I’m sure he will have incredibly useful, specific ideas about how to rebuild Los Angeles and who can help do it — listen to him!
2. Put people before fish
One of the most high-profile disputes between Newsom and Trump has broken out over water, and California’s failure to supply adequate water to our cities and farmers. Trump is absolutely right about this. So-called journalists mocked Trump for talking about a “giant faucet” that sends water to southern California, which Gavin Newsom restricts in order to protect a tiny fish. But in doing so, they just reveal their own ignorance.
Most of California’s water supply is in the north of the state, much of it from rivers and reservoirs fed by the melting Sierra Nevada snow pack. Most of the population lives in the south, and there are two main supply routes bringing water there: the Delta-Mendota Canal, built and run by the federal government, and the California Aqueduct, run by the state. Each of these has a giant pumping station, close to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, that regulates water flow.
In his first administration, Trump ordered the federal pumping station to increase water supply. Unbelievably, California retaliated by reducing supply from the state pumping station, in order to leave more water in the Delta. Why? They themselves admit that it was to protect salmon, and the three-inch delta smelt, a species that died out in 2020 anyway, only to be revived by biologists at UC Davis.
Trump has issued a new Executive Order — Putting People Over Fish — to increase water supply in the federal system. California should welcome this instead of fighting it like last time.
3. DOGE California!
On both of these issues — water, and rebuilding L.A. — there is a massive self-imposed obstacle: California’s astonishing, worst-in-the-nation red tape and bureaucracy.
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In fact, this is standing in the way of getting anything done in California these days: rebuilding Los Angeles, building the new water infrastructure we desperately need, building the new homes we need to solve our housing crisis. We have the highest housing costs in America, along with the lowest homeownership. We pay the most for water, for electricity — for everything. And a huge part of the reason is the sprawling bureaucracy in Sacramento that has built up over decades of one-party rule by far-left Democrats.
One of the most high-profile disputes between Newsom and Trump has broken out over water, and California’s failure to supply adequate water to our cities and farmers.
Their ‘climate’ extremism has become an excuse for slowing down or blocking any project. Those that manage to go ahead are hit with endless, constantly changing environmental regulations pushed by unaccountable state bureaucracies like CARB (the California Air Resources Board) or the Coastal Commission. (These two, by the way, bear the lion’s share of responsibility for the devastation of the L.A. fires. It was their rules that blocked vital brush-clearing work in the area.)
On top of the environmental extremism, we have over-the-top labor regulations, imposed at the behest of the unions that fund California’s Democrat politicians. Extortionate labor costs and forced use of union labor mean many construction projects are killed because they are just not viable. And on top of that, the taxes, fees, permits and mind-boggling bureaucratic processes all add up to give California the worst business climate in America — 10 years in a row.
Trump knows how to deal with all of this. He put Elon Musk in charge of getting rid of federal bureaucracy: now let’s do the same in the state with the worst bureaucracy in America. Yes, it’s time to DOGE California!
California desperately needs a dose of common sense and competence. President Trump can help provide it — if only Gavin Newsom and the rest of his California Democrats will listen.
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