Mark Pulliam, a retired attorney and Misrule of Law blogger, shared his thoughts on how President-elect Donald Trump, once he assumes office, should handle the state of California and city of Los Angeles’ request for federal assistance following the ongoing wildfires which have since resulted in the death of 24 individuals.
The wildfires in California, which began burning on Tuesday, have since destroyed nearly 41,000 acres, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Since the fires began and fire crews have been struggling to put out the blazes, it has since been revealed that the city of Los Angeles cut its fire department’s funding by $17.6 million and California Governor Gavin Newsom cut the state’s wildfire protection budget by $101 million for fiscal year 2025.
Pulliam, who lived and practiced law in Southern California for decades, said the state and city “fell short” in taking the “necessary measures” to prevent and fight the wildfires.
“You have these canyons that get overgrown with brush, you have the Santa Ana winds that come blasting in at horrific speeds. They’re dry, they’re hot, and it’s like a natural furnace for this material. So in order to avoid these kinds of wildfires, it requires a lot of detailed precautions and you have to have disaster plans and you have to be able to respond to them. This is where, unfortunately, the state of California and the city of Los Angeles fell short,” Pulliam said on Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Noting how state and city leaders have instead focused on allocating funds to its homeless epidemic, services for illegal migrants, and pushing DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives, Pulliam said the extensive damages from the wildfires will have the state asking for the federal government to “bail them out.”
Aside from providing direct, short-term FEMA funding for individuals impacted by the fires, Pulliam said funding for the city and state should come with “strings attached,” explaining how “bailing out people who made mistakes leading to a catastrophe creates a moral hazard.”
“If there’s no accountability for bad decisions, and in fact if bad decisions are rewarded, you will only get more bad decisions…The federal government can place strings on funding which cities and states can either accept or reject,” Pulliam said.
Pulliam said one way to ensure that California uses federal funding for its intended purpose and to be held accountable for its failure to prevent the wildfires is to require the state to restore funding for its public safety departments that were cut and eliminate programs that have led to “inept” public safety forces.
“If you have inept public safety forces, you’re going to have crime. You’re going to have out-of-control fires. So you need to fix that. We need to tell them that you cannot be a sanctuary city that provides sanctuary for the homeless and for illegal aliens and provides them with medical care, etc,” Pulliam explained.
Pulliam said this strategy should be employed for all cities that seek federal funding for issues that arose from leftist-inflicted policies.
“[Trump] should say to the states and cities that we will help you get out of this mess, but only if you conform to a list of best practices that we will develop that eliminates some of the causes for the high crime, these wildfires, these disasters of homeless epidemics, etc. At the top of the list would be that for a city or state to receive extraordinary federal funds, they would have to eliminate all DEI-type programs, which includes race conscious hiring and all of that other silly stuff. Restore meritocracy to government employment. This is especially important in public safety functions,” Pulliam added.
Watch the full interview:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
