Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT) issued a call to drastically improve each state’s wildfire response following the raging Los Angeles fires, a topic he and President-elect Donald Trump discussed in a recent meeting.
As of Thursday morning, five wildfires have uncontrollably spread in Los Angeles County by over 29,000 acres, leaving five people dead and four firefighters injured. Sheehy, who founded the aerial firefighting company Bridger Aerospace before his 2024 Senate run, said Wednesday he had a “fantastic” meeting with Trump, during which the wildfires were the first topic they addressed.
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“Those red and yellow planes you showed on the screen, I used to personally fly those,” Sheehy said on Fox News’s The Ingraham Angle. “Our aircraft, we don’t have enough planes, we don’t have enough firefighters, and President Trump committed that he’s going to make sure we put our communities first. We’re not going to put the Eurasian shellfish smelt first. We’re not going to put wrong-headed environmental plans first so to make sure we can protect our communities from wildfire from coast to coast.”
Sheehy’s comment on the “smelt” fish was a jab at Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), whom Trump blamed for California’s wildfires. The president-elect wrote on social media that the governor refused to sign a water restoration declaration for the state due to Newsom wanting to “protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt” and that “the ultimate price is being paid” due to the governor’s decision.
Going forward, regarding future wildfires, the Montana senator pitched “a national response time standard” for every U.S. city, suggesting the National Fire Protection Association set a response time of no less than five minutes. He argued there is currently “no standard” in firefighter response and that “it’s time to change that.”
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Other details discussed by Sheehy and Trump during their meeting included the Panama Canal, which the senator deemed “a national security priority,” as well as how China has been “taking advantage of it.”
On Thursday morning, Trump slammed the “gross incompetence” of both Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and their response to the wildfires while also blaming the Federal Emergency Management Agency for wasting money on “the Green New Scam.” The president-elect has also called for the California governor to resign.