President Donald Trump sharply criticized California’s forest management policies during a press conference at the White House on Tuesday, blaming the state’s wildfire crisis on neglect and environmentalist obstruction. Speaking alongside Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Trump vowed to overhaul forest policy at the federal level by removing dead wood and enforcing stronger land maintenance standards.
Trump referenced conversations with leaders from forested nations like Austria, who maintain cleaner forest floors and avoid wildfire outbreaks. “Our trees are much more flammable than California, but we don’t have forest fires because we clean the floor,” one leader reportedly told him. Trump emphasized that California fails to follow this model, calling the state’s forestry a “disaster.”
He stated that fallen trees and dead brush, if left for over a year, become “tinder wood” that “virtually explodes” during fire season. According to Trump, California officials refuse to clear debris under the false belief that nature should regenerate untouched. “It doesn’t regenerate. It just sits there, and it usually catches fire,” he said.
Trump pledged that his administration would step in where California fails. “We’re going to clean the forests, we’re going to start cleaning them. We’re going to get rid of dead wood,” he declared, slamming the billions spent annually on fire recovery that could be avoided with preventative action.
Secretary Burgum echoed this approach, tying forest mismanagement to unnecessary economic and environmental loss. He advocated for expanding the domestic timber industry, noting that 700 million acres of U.S. surface area — much under federal control — could be managed for both conservation and economic benefit. “When we let it burn… we spend taxpayer dollars cleaning up a mess that could have been prevented,” Burgum said.
Burgum stressed the importance of shifting away from reactionary spending and toward proactive forestry efforts, citing President Trump’s leadership as key to restoring balance in America’s land and resource management.
The comments follow recent wildfires in Los Angeles County and growing unrest over federal immigration enforcement in the state. As riots flare and forests burn, Trump’s remarks present a stark contrast between environmentalist policies and practical forest management rooted in stewardship and accountability.
