LA’s fires, Trump’s fires and America’s burning divide

Water is dropped by helicopter on the Kenneth Fire in the West Hills section of Los Angeles, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)

If I had a dollar for every time “apocalyptic,” or “war zone” or “bomb” was used to describe the LA fires, I might have enough to pay the reported $50 billion it will take to rebuild LA.

But that’s the challenge of the LA fires, “there are no words.”  We’re only beginning to understand how this unimaginable tragedy is finally bringing our nation closer to its senses about the horror of climate disaster.

It’s real, and that it’s happening in LA – the 2nd largest city in the nation – and the city with the largest number of Filipinos is significant.

Though most Filipinos don’t live in the fanciest neighborhoods hit by the disaster, we are all impacted. Smoke and flames don’t discriminate. If the wind shifts suddenly, no one escapes the fire. We’re in this together.

From Palisades by the ocean to Altadena in the foothills, the fire has been kept alive by the 80-100 mph Santa Ana winds, and has made all of LA a tinderbox that can’t be ignored. I’ve been hooked on the tragedy of the LA fires for nearly a week now watching everything safely from afar. And it’s changed me.

As a San Francisco native, I’m supposed to have a chauvinistic attitude when it comes to anything LA. But this week, no. The humanitarian in me has emerged.

I love LA.

Sure, I may dislike the Dodgers. But I love LA. The fires and the smoke made me realize that. How can I help from where I am? The best thing I can do is gladly send my share of water from NorCal down south.  Done. You need it, LA?  Take it. I don’t mind using less. For you, I’ll conserve. To hell with the water wars.

For now, take my water please.

(OK, just trying to keep things light and real. It’s my coping mechanism).

You see, the real tragedy is these tragic fires aren’t supposed to happen this time of year.

Last year, at this time, LA had mudslides and floods. I was regularly driving to Southern California and felt the impact of the rains. The vegetation also stayed green until drought conditions kicked in, then everything turned brown. You want to know why this is happening? This year, there’s been .02 inches of rain to start the winter, when the average is 3.46 inches. Add the heavier than normal Santa Ana winds (at times up to 100 mph) blowing from east to west, and all it takes is a single ember to create the chaos LA is experiencing now.

Climate change has given California a never-before, year-round “fire season.”

Combine hotter summers, drier winters and decades of bad decisions around land use and water management and the state has become a powder keg.

But it’s not just a California problem. No, these wildfires are a preview of what’s in store for the rest of America as climate change accelerates. We’ve seen the warnings, felt the heat.  Yet, we still act like we’ve got all the time in the world to fix things before global temperatures rise 1.5 degrees by 2040.

And who is leading us into the future? Donald “Burn, Baby Burn” Trump, the once and future climate denier.

Blame game

Soon after the fires began, Trump could have been a unifying presence focused on helping people victimized by disaster. Instead, he did what he does best. Point fingers and start political fires. Trump blamed California Gov. Gavin Newsom for the water politics of California that he believed resulted in some hydrants going dry. Easy for Trump to say, but not factual.  Hydrants went dry because of the coincidence of the incredible demand from multiple fires; and from infrastructure issues like the need to cut off power because of exposed downed lines, which impacted the pumping of water to hydrants.

I thought Trump might change his tune by Thursday when he appeared in Washington D.C. for the funeral service of Jimmy Carter. All five living presidents were there and Trump seemed on good behavior, quietly sitting next to President Obama.

I wonder if he asked to see Obama’s birth certificate?

On the National Day of Mourning, I had one eye on DC and the other on LA. I only wish all of America could watch a tape of the memorial.  People would see how Jimmy Carter was really the kind of president the country needs right now.  Carter was eulogized for being humane, bi-partisan and peace loving. He was anti-Washington outsider, a real populist and no spend-thrift. He’d hang up ziplock bags by his kitchen sink for reuse. He was smart enough to revive a flagging economy, and deregulate industries like some conservatives. He was also green, an environmentalist before his time. He was for a world for everyone, not just the rich, but  for the poor and people of color.  He was the “New South” for racial and social justice.

And he was capable of bringing peace to the Middle East.

Carter was everything Trump isn’t. Trump’s the guy who likes to call certain places “s-hole nations.”  Carter saw those countries as opportunities to show love and create allies.

Would any of that rub off on the guy who started the week saying he’d consider military action to take over Greenland, the Panama Canal, or maybe even make Canada the 51st state?

Likely not. But Thursday gave us a glimpse of a contemplative Trump, neither selfish nor self-serving.  A Trump worth a Zuckerberg-style, Meta knee bend? There are limits.

Alas, by Friday, Trump was back to his old ways, appearing in New York at the  criminal sentencing in the Stormy Daniels/hush money case that resulted in 34 felony convictions for Trump.

Trump, the nation’s first felon president

This was a test to see if America can still hold someone like Trump accountable. Judge Juan Merchan had already said what he would do – give Trump an “unconditional discharge,” which is actually less nasty  than it sounds. It provides no punishment for Trump’s crimes, but upholds the jury’s verdict.

The law protects the acts of a sitting president, but Merchan wasn’t willing to test whether that applied to a president-elect. So he protected the office of the presidency, and not the individual (Trump), making it clear that the law does not erase the crimes for which Trump was found guilty. By doing so, Merchan respected the jury and its verdict. He could have derided Trump for his court behavior and sentenced him to 1-4 years. Instead, Merchan simply upheld the law and closed the case. A neutered sentence. Still, not good enough for Trump, who vows an appeal.

Trump also had his say that day. And maybe because he was virtual on live video and not in the court room, he seemed small, contained, but still full of disdain for the court. He claimed he was not guilty and a victim of “a witch-hunt.”

So as LA kept burning, Trump’s fire still burned as well. By speaking out in court, he was consuming the faith people have in our democracy. Half the country thinks he’s a martyr. The other half wants him in a cell forever. And in between, America smolders, divided and brittle.

These two crises – the fires in LA and the fire that is Trump – aren’t as different as they seem. Both are rooted in neglect. We’ve ignored climate change for decades, just as we ignored the rise of Trumpism.

Trump’s the product of decades of resentment, racism and unchecked inequality. A reality TV star who capitalized on the anger of people left behind by the system. He didn’t start that fire, but he threw gasoline on it.

So here we are. A nation on fire, literally and figuratively.

In LA, people are losing their homes. In Washington, people are losing their faith in the rule of law. And what are we doing about it? Not enough.

All of Biden’s agenda, from immigration to climate change initiatives are expected to be undone in the new Trump term in the coming weeks.

If there’s one thing fires teach us, it’s that destruction isn’t the end. It’s simply a chance to start over. After the flames die down, the land heals. New growth begins. We can rebuild – not just homes and buildings, but systems and values.

The mistake we’ll make is not understanding the connections between the fires in LA and the “fires” caused by our incoming felon.  Separate crises, but part of the same story – we’re a country at a crossroads.

Do we let the flames consume us or do we rise from the ashes together?

Emil Guillermo is an award-winning journalist, commentator and storyteller. He writes a column for the Inquirer.net’s US Channel. Watch his mini-talk show “Emil Amok’s Takeout/What Does an Asian American Think?” on www.YouTube.com/emilamok1 or join him on patreon.com/emilamok.