Elon Musk uses wildfires to attack California’s DEI practices — as MAGA faithful spread wild conspiracies
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Elon Musk has lashed out at California fire officials, baselessly accusing them of putting DEI measures over “saving lives and homes,” as MAGA supporters are spreading conspiracy theories on social media about the catastrophic wildfires ripping through Los Angeles County.
Musk joined President-elect Donald Trump in pointing fingers over the fires that have so far spread to more than 20,000 acres across Southern California.
Two people have died and an unknown number have been injured as a result of the fires, officials said at a press conference on Wednesday. More than 100,000 residents have been forced to evacuate the city, areas of which have now become unrecognizable.
On Wednesday afternoon, Musk reposted a comment on his social media platform X (formerly Twitter) from the right-wing account Libs of TikTok, which hit out at the Los Angeles Fire Department’s diversity hiring policies.
“They prioritized DEI over saving lives and homes,” Musk wrote, without offering further evidence or explanation.
As the fires exploded in size on Wednesday, Trumpworld seized on the devastation to attack California and its Democratic leadership, as unfounded conspiracies began to spread online.
One prolific Trump-supporting account claimed that state leaders “used public funds to house illegals” instead of building infrastructure to store water.
In response, another account baselessly linked the disaster to cloud seeding — a technique that shocks clouds to artificially stimulate rainfall. “Money was spent on cloud seeding to ‘increase rainfall’ even though California has no infrastructure to support it. 80% of rainfall flows back into the ocean,” it said. “It’s on purpose. They want the state reliant on government for water.”
Donald Trump Jr also weighed in, criticizing the LAFD’s donation of surplus equipment to Ukraine to help with the war effort in 2022. “Oh look of course The LA fire department donated a bunch of their supplies to Ukraine,” he said, without adding any further insight.
In 2022, the LAFD said it sent surplus items such as hoses, nozzles, and helmets to the war-torn country.
The criticism echoes that of the president-elect, who blasted California governor Gavin Newsom, claiming he prioritized “a worthless fish called a smelt” over Californians.
“Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way,” Trump fumed on Truth Social.
“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. Now the ultimate price is being paid.”
But the governor’s office hit back in a statement accusing the president-elect of creating “pure fiction.”
“There is no such document as the water restoration declaration — that is pure fiction,” the statement said. “The Governor is focused on protecting people, not playing politics, and making sure firefighters have all the resources they need.”
Trump also criticized Biden in a follow up post. “NO WATER IN THE FIRE HYDRANTS, NO MONEY IN FEMA,” he wrote. “THIS IS WHAT JOE BIDEN IS LEAVING ME. THANKS JOE!”
