'Trees can explode': Trump again blames California for causing wildfires with poor forest management
Donald Trump again blamed Democratic state leaders on the West Coast for forest fires raging across the region for poor forest management, saying they should be ready because dry trees can “just explode.”
Fires have spread up and down the West Coast, from California up through Oregon and Washington state, displacing thousands and sowing doubt among some residents about whether they will remain in the region long term.
The president criticized state and local officials in the region for not “cutting,” like he said one European leader put it, areas of forest to prevent active fires from spreading. “They don’t do that,” he said Monday as he landed in Sacramento for a briefing on the fires and another event.
“When trees fall down after … 18 months ...they become dry” like a “match stick," Mr Trump said. “They just explode. They can explode.”
It was unclear if he was just using an expression to make a point, or really thinks the trees detonate when they become very dry.
“They have to do something about it. They have to do cuts in between,” he said of state leaders.
