The returning president, whose second White House stint begins next week, has speculated about several possible causes, while labelling some elected officials “incompetent” as the devastating fires continue to burn.
While hosting Republican governors this week, he hit out at California Governor Gavin Newson and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, saying: “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.”
Mr Trump has also been accused of spreading false claims about California’s water policy and federal assistance. And this is not the first time he has been outspoken about natural disasters.
What has Donald Trump blamed the LA wildfires on?
Mr Trump has placed the blame on former President Joe Biden, among others, and falsely claimed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had “no money” to help California despite Congress recently passing a disaster relief supplemental worth $29 billion.
He also has been accused of creating “pure fiction” in another of his claims.
Mr Trump accused Gavin Newson of refusing to sign a “water restoration declaration”, saying the California governor instead diverted water resources in order to protect an endangered species of Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta fish, called smelt.
Posting on his own social media site, Truth Social, Mr Trump wrote: “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.”
But 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”.
Mr Newson said he hadn’t heard from Mr Trump since the fires broke out, adding: “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. That is mis- and disinformation I don’t think advantages or aids any of us.”
What have the fires been caused by?
Outgoing President Biden and other emergency officials have said labelled the fires a natural disaster and official investigations into the exact causes remain ongoing.
While it could take weeks, or even months, to work out how each of the fires began, one thing is clear: the fierce Santa Ana winds and extremely dry conditions have made it incredibly difficult for firefighters to contain the blazes.
What has Donald Trump said about other natural disasters?
This is not the first time he has been outspoken, and factually incorrect, on disasters.
When hurricanes caused devastation in parts of Georgia and North Carolina last year, Mr Trump was quick to spread misinformation, claiming there was no money to clean up or help with aid because the funds had been drained from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in order to house illegal migrants.
He said: “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, something that was proven not to be the case.
The US National Weather Service was forced to issue a public service announcement refuting Mr Trump’s claims, to reassure locals.
