Trump Calls Officials Handling Los Angeles Wildfires Incompetent

President-elect Donald J.Trump offered fresh criticism early Sunday of the officials in charge of fighting the Los Angeles wildfires, calling them “incompetent” and asking why the blazes were not yet extinguished.“The fires are still raging in L.A.,” Mr.

Trump wrote on his Truth Social site.“The incompetent pols have no idea how to put them out.”Mr.

Trump’s comments indicated that the fires, and officials’ response to them, will likely occupy a prominent place on his domestic political agenda when he takes office on Jan.20.

He has renewed a longstanding feud with California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, who in turn has accused Mr.Trump of politicizing the fires.California politicians have faced criticism over the fires since they broke out on Tuesday, including questions over how local and state authorities had prepared for them and how they have grown so quickly into massive blazes.Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles had to contend with questions about whether there was adequate warning about the likelihood of devastating fires, and why there was a shortage of water and firefighters during the initial response.

At a news conference on Thursday, she avoided a question about her absence from the city when the fires began — she was in Ghana on a previously scheduled official visit — and said that any evaluation of mistakes or failures by “any body, department, individual” would come later.Mr.Newsom, a Democrat, has also fended off criticism from Mr.

Trump, who blamed him for the failure to contain fires and claimed he had blocked an infusion of water to Southern California over concerns about how it would affect a threatened fish species.Mr.Newsom’s press office responded by saying in a statement that the “water restoration declaration” that Mr.

Trump had accused him of not signing did not exist.“The governor is focused on protecting people, not playing politics, and making sure firefighters have all the resources they need,” the sta...