Palisades arson suspect Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, is accused of igniting the massive inferno that tore through Los Angeles earlier this year — while using social media to spread anti-Trump rhetoric and alarmist climate change posts.
Prosecutors say Rinderknecht hiked into the hills above Los Angeles on Jan. 1 and deliberately started a brushfire that later reignited, destroying over 7,000 homes and businesses, killing 12 people, and scorching nearly 24,000 acres. Damages are estimated at roughly $150 billion.
Before the blaze, Rinderknecht frequently posted about climate change, mocked conservatives, and promoted veganism. He shared a 2020 article titled “Climate Change Will Force a New American Migration,” which featured a photo of California wildfires — eerily similar to the catastrophe he’s now accused of creating.
Other posts during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary championed then-candidates Kamala Harris and Joe Biden. One shared article read, “Senator Kamala Harris Says Meat is Destroying the Planet,” while another warned, “Antarctica’s Ice Shelves Have Lost Millions of Metric Tons of Ice.” Rinderknecht also reposted a Joe Biden message claiming Trump’s pandemic response “destroyed” the economy.
In one disturbing image, he appeared “wild-eyed and mouth-open with his face painted like a skull and covered in blood.” Prosecutors say he even created AI-generated images of “cities burning with masses of people fleeing the destruction.”
The irony, officials note, is that Rinderknecht often blamed global warming for wildfires — before allegedly causing one of California’s deadliest and most destructive blazes himself.
