随着致命的野火在南加州蔓延，当选总统唐纳德·特朗普一周以来一直在攻击民主党官员，并继续传播关于自然灾害的错误信息。
“我认为加文基本上不称职，我认为市长也基本上不称职，可能他们两人都非常不称职，”特朗普周四晚上在佛罗里达州的Mar-a-Lago接待共和党州长时谈到加利福尼亚州州长加文·纽瑟姆。
自火灾发生以来，纽瑟姆、洛杉矶市长凯伦·巴斯和总统乔·拜登一直面临着缺乏准备、削减消防部门预算和缺乏灭火用水的批评。特朗普对这三个人都指指点点，散布关于加州的水政策和联邦援助。
例如，特朗普指责拜登，因为他错误地声称联邦紧急事务管理局“没有钱”帮助加州，尽管国会最近通过了总额为290亿美元的救灾补充资金。
这位当选总统还提出了夸大的说法，他指责纽瑟姆拒绝签署“水资源恢复宣言”，称他反而转移水资源，以保护濒临灭绝的萨克拉门托-圣华金河三角洲的胡瓜鱼。
“他想通过减少水来保护一种本质上毫无价值的鱼——胡瓜鱼(没用!)，却不关心加州人民，”特朗普在Truth Social上发帖称。
虽然有法规限制从萨克拉门托-圣华金河三角洲抽取的水量以保护物种，但州长办公室表示没有这样的声明，称这一指控“纯属虚构”。
纽瑟姆说，自火灾发生以来，他一直没有听到特朗普的消息，但当选总统的言辞于事无补。
“当他谈到水库中的三角洲冶炼厂时，我不知道他指的是什么。南加州的州立水库已经满了。纽瑟姆周日在美国全国广播公司(NBC)的“与媒体见面”节目中说:“我认为错误和虚假信息对我们任何人都没有好处或帮助。”
纽瑟姆说，自从火灾或选举以来，特朗普没有给他打过电话。当被问及纽瑟姆是否担心援助会受阻时，纽瑟姆说他担心。他补充说，他希望他能与特朗普拥有“相同的关系和相同的精神”，就像他与拜登一样。
“嗯，我的意思是，他已经在犹他州做到了。他在密歇根做过，在波多黎各也做过。在我2018年担任州长之前，他就在加州这样做了，直到他发现奥兰治县的人投票给他，然后他决定捐钱。所以他已经做了很多年了。它超越了各州，顺便说一下，包括佐治亚州，他也发出了类似的威胁。这就是他的风格。我们认真对待这件事，以至于在过去要花更多一点的时间，”纽瑟姆在NBC上说。
拜登和其他紧急事务官员也拒绝了特朗普的说法，坚称火灾是由强风和极度干燥的条件引起的，最初的缺水是由于断电以避免引发更多火灾。
尽管如此，特朗普长期以来一直在推动这些主张，在竞选活动中暗示，如果纽森不恢复特朗普的政策，他将暂停对加州的援助。
特朗普政府在其第一个任期内签署了一份备忘录，将数百万加仑的水重新分配给生活在中央山谷和南加州的农民，从萨克拉门托-圣华金河三角洲抽出。
“来这里的水是死的。加文·纽瑟姆将签署这些文件，如果他不签署这些文件，我们不会给他钱来扑灭他所有的火，我们也不会给他钱来扑灭他的火。他有问题，”特朗普9月在洛杉矶高尔夫球场的新闻发布会上说。
周三在国会大厦与参议院共和党人举行闭门会议后，川普继续批评纽森对野火的处理，同时最终声称两人需要合作。
“所以，发生的事情是一场悲剧，州长没有做好工作，”特朗普告诉美国广播公司新闻的高级国会记者雷切尔·斯科特。
特朗普说:“尽管如此，我和他相处得很好——当他担任州长时，我们合作得很好，我们会一起工作。”“我想看起来我们将不得不重建它。”
这不是特朗普第一次在灾难发生后攻击紧急事务官员。当飓风去年在佐治亚州和北卡罗来纳州的部分地区造成破坏时，特朗普迅速调整了他的竞选日程，将重点放在这些地区。
在这些访问中，特朗普一再传播关于联邦应急管理局应对措施的错误信息，错误地指责拜登政府的联邦官员，并谎称政府从联邦应急管理局抽走了资金来安置非法移民。
“他们遭受了非常严重的飓风袭击，尤其是北卡罗来纳州和佐治亚州的部分地区。但是北卡罗来纳真的受到了打击。我告诉你，那些人永远不应该投票给民主党人，因为他们阻碍了援助，”特朗普在10月的一次采访中声称。
地方和联邦官员警告特朗普当受灾地区试图重建时，他出于政治动机的言论是如何造成伤害的;然而，当选总统经常拒绝收回成命。
在访问北卡罗来纳州阿什维尔时，特朗普拒绝解决针对联邦应急管理局工作人员的暴力威胁，而是说，“我认为你必须让人们知道他们在做什么。如果他们做得很好，我想我们也应该这样说，因为我认为他们应该得到奖励。但是如果他们没有做——这是否意味着如果他们做得不好，我们就应该不说?”
即使在任职期间，特朗普也不时因兜售错误信息而受到抵制。
2019年，特朗普声称阿拉巴马州位于飓风多里安的路径上，导致国家气象局发布了一则公共服务公告，驳斥了特朗普的说法。然后，同年，当参议员首次未能通过对波多黎各飓风受害者的救灾援助时，特朗普指责当地领导人，因为他散布了虚假的说法，反复说波多黎各收到了“比以往任何时候都多的钱”。
“波多黎各人民很伟大，但政客们要么无能，要么腐败，”特朗普当时发帖称。
周四晚上，共和党州长为特朗普辩护，吹捧他作为总统在灾难中的领导技能。
“你可以批评当选总统，但我认为你也必须让其他人负责，”佛罗里达州州长罗恩·德桑蒂斯在马拉拉戈对记者说。
“在拜登处理自然灾害期间，我与他合作得很好，但我与唐纳德·特朗普合作得很好，所以我非常有信心，作为一个知道我们面临这些问题的国家，特朗普政府将非常强大，并将不分党派地为人民服务，”德桑蒂斯补充说。
尽管特朗普言辞激烈，但洛杉矶官员表示，他们没有直接收到当选总统的消息，但一直在与他的团队成员联系，他们预计特朗普周六向他发出邀请后会访问该地区。
Trump's track record of disaster misinformation as he casts blame over California wildfires
As deadly wildfires burn through Southern California, President-elect Donald Trump has spent the week attacking Democratic officials and continuing a pattern of spreading misinformation about natural disasters.
"I think that Gavin is largely incompetent, and I think the mayor is largely incompetent, and probably both of them are just stone-cold incompetent," Trump said of California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday night while hosting Republican governors at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
Since the fires broke out, Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and President Joe Biden have faced criticism over a lack of preparedness, budget cuts to the fire department and a lack of water to fight the fires. Trump has pointed fingers at all three, spreading false claims aboutCalifornia's water policyand federal assistance.
For example, Trump blamed Biden as he falsely claimed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had "no money" to help California despite Congress recently passing a disaster relief supplemental totaling $29 billion.
The president-elect also pushed exaggerated claims as he accused Newsom of refusing to sign a "water restoration declaration," saying he instead diverted water resources in order to protect the endangered Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta's smelt fish.
"He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn't work!), but didn't care about the people of California," Trump posted on Truth Social.
While there are regulations that limit the amount of water pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to protect the species, the governor's office said there was no such declaration, calling the accusation "pure fiction."
Newsom said he has not heard from Trump since the fires broke out, but the president-elect's rhetoric isn't helping.
"I don't know what he's referring to when he talks about the Delta smelt in reservoirs. The reservoirs are completely full, the state reservoirs here in Southern California," he said. "That mis- and disinformation I don't think advantages or aids any of us," Newsom said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Newsom said that Trump has not called him since the fires, or since the elections. When asked whether Newsom was worried that aid would be held back, Newsom said he was. He added that he hopes he can have the "same relationship and that same spirit" with Trump as he did with Biden.
"Well, I mean, he's done it in Utah. He's done it in Michigan, did it in Puerto Rico. He did it to California back before I was even governor in 2018, until he found out folks in Orange County voted for him and then he decided to give the money. So he's been at this for years and years and years. It transcends the states, including, by the way, Georgia he threatened similarly. So that's his style. And we take it seriously to the extent that in the past it's taken a little bit more time," Newsom said on NBC.
Biden and other emergency officials have also rejected Trump's claims, maintaining the fire was caused by fierce winds and extremely dry conditions and that the initial water shortage occurred due to power being shut off in order to avoid sparking additional fires.
Still, Trump has long pushed these claims, suggesting while on the campaign trail that he'd withhold aid for California if Newsom didn't reinstate Trump's policies.
Trump's administration in his first term signed a memorandum that redirected millions of gallons of water to farmers living in the Central Valley and Southern California, pumping it out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
"The water coming here is dead. And Gavin Newsom is going to sign those papers, and if he doesn't sign those papers, we won't give him money to put out all his fires, and we don't give him the money to put out his fires. He's got problems," Trump said at a press conference at his Los Angeles golf course in September.
After a closed-door meeting with Senate Republicans at the Capitol on Wednesday, Trump continued to criticize Newsom's handling of the wildfires while ultimately asserting that the two would need to work together.
"So, what's happened is a tragedy, and the governor has not done a good job," Trump told ABC News’ Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott.
"With that being said, I got along well with him -- when he was governor, we worked together very well, and we would work together," Trump said. "I guess it looks like we're going to be the one having to rebuild it."
It isn't the first time Trump has gone after emergency officials in the wake of disasters. When hurricanes caused devastation in parts of Georgia and North Carolina last year, Trump quickly pivoted his campaign schedule to focus on those areas.
During those visits, Trump repeatedly spread misinformation about FEMA's response, incorrectly casting blame on federal officials in the Biden administration and falsely claiming that the administration had drained funds from FEMA to house illegal migrants.
"They got hit with a very bad hurricane, especially North Carolina and parts of Georgia. But North Carolina really got hit. I'll tell you what, those people should never vote for a Democrat, because they held back aid," Trump claimed in an October interview.
Local and federal officialswarned Trumpabout how his politically motivated rhetoric could be causing harm as the areas hit attempted to rebuild; however, the president-elect often refused to backtrack.
While visiting Asheville, North Carolina, Trump refused to address threats of violence against FEMA workers, instead saying, "I think you have to let people know how they're doing. If they were doing a great job, I think we should say that, too, because I think they should be rewarded. But if they're not doing -- does that mean that if they're doing a poor job, we're supposed to not say it?"
Even while in office, Trump received pushback at times for peddling misinformation.
In 2019, Trump claimed that Alabama was in the path of Hurricane Dorian, causing the National Weather Service to issue a public service announcement refuting Trump's claims. Then, that same year, when senators first failed to pass disaster relief aid to hurricane victims in Puerto Rico, Trump blamed local leaders as he spread false claims, saying repeatedly that Puerto Rico had received “more money than has ever been gotten for a hurricane before.”
"The people of Puerto Rico are GREAT, but the politicians are incompetent or corrupt," Trump posted at the time.
Republican governors came to Trump's defense on Thursday night, touting his leadership skills as president during disasters.
"You could criticize the president-elect, but I think you also have to hold these other people accountable," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters at Mar-a-Lago.
"I worked well with Biden during his time at natural disasters, but I work well with Donald Trump, so I'm very confident as a state that knows we face these that a Trump administration is going to be very strong and is going to be there for the people, regardless of party," DeSantis added.
Despite Trump's harsh words, Los Angeles officials say they haven't heard from the president-elect directly but have been in touch with members of his team and they expect Trump to visit the area after sending him an invitation on Saturday.
