It now clear that some moves President Trump has authorized his pal Elon Musk and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency to make will thwart at least a few of Trump’s own often-repeated priorities.
Among the actions figuring to affect California most are three, so far. One was the abrupt firing of 20 judges from immigration courts in San Diego, where they decided on the legitimacy of immigrant amnesty claims.
Firing these judges will make cases pile up far beyond prior levels and increase the number of undocumented immigrants in federal custody. It will also cause a further pileup of would-be immigrants on the Mexican side of the border, likely spurring at least some to enter America without authorization.
Then there are two moves that figure to make the next fire season, coming up in late spring or early summer, as bad as or worse than recent ones.
Trump legitimately repeats the conviction that cleaning forest floors can reduce the intensity and frequency of wildfires. He consistently and falsely blames California’s state government for not doing this.
In fact, the federal government over which he presides owns about 97 percent of public lands in California, or about half the state’s total area. The state controls just three percent of public lands, much of it in state parks that are generally well maintained.
The federal lands are mostly governed by two agencies. One is the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), a part of the Department of the Interior. The other is the U.S. Forest Service, run by the Department of Agriculture.
The Forest Service controls about 15 million acres in very rural areas, including the Sierra, Six Rivers and Eldorado national forests, and in national forests abutting urban areas, like the Angeles National Forest near Los Angeles, the Cleveland National Forest near both San Diego and some Orange County cities, plus the Los Padres National Forest near Santa Barbara.
Their maintenance is critical both to recreation for millions of Californians as well as to fire safety, as the Eaton fire that burned much of Altadena in January amply demonstrated. It began in the Angeles forest.
Trump is right that raking forest floors regularly to remove dried out branches, leaves and other debris can be vital in minimizing wildfires. But with Musk’s aid, in mid-February he fired 3,400 Forest Service workers still on probation in their first year of employment, many of whom had been hired to do the job Trump calls critical to stopping fires.
That’s like firing the surgeon and expecting your operation to go well.
Trump also froze all contracts previously signed by both the Forest Service and the BLM for private companies to do such work, in part because their funding was part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, ex-President Joe Biden’s favorite measure.
The BLM quickly halted plans to clear hazardous overgrowth in the approximately 6 million California acres it controls. That includes most of the Mojave Desert and lands near Bakersfield, as well as a large swath of forest in the state’s northeast corner.
An open question is whether the notoriously non-detail-oriented Trump even knows which federal employees and contractors his campaign financier (to the tune of more than $250 million last year) Musk is firing. If he knew these firings completely contradict priorities he has trumpeted, why would he have okayed them?
The immigration judges, fired Forest Service workers and jilted BLM contractors were all critical to jobs Trump prioritizes every chance he gets.
To no avail so far, plenty of officials quickly objected to these Trump moves and others. This state’s Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff joined 12 other Western senators, mostly Republicans, protesting the cuts to what is known as “wildland treatment.”
The chief of a union representing most California firefighters noted that Trump “acknowledges…vegetation management is a major driver in the prevention of firestorms.”
Which leaves at least two open questions: Even if money for jobs and contracts were restored, would anyone return after having the rug pulled from under them?
And does it matter more to the president that wildland maintenance can minimize firestorms or that the money to do it would come from a pet law of the predecessor he deeply resents?
Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com.