President Donald Trump signed an executive order placing the federal government in charge of the rebuild in Los Angeles, CA, following the January 2025 Pacific Palisades wildfires.
“I want to see if we can take over the city and state and just give the people their permits they want to build,” Trump told The California Post.
Trump pointed out the failures of Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass, as well as the Biden administration’s slow response.
“The State and local governments failed to engage in responsible forest management systems out of a misguided commitment to naturalist and climate policies, which increased the severity of the fires,” according to the order. “They failed to maintain water distribution and reservoir systems so that these systems would be available and fully functional in case of emergency.
In fact, nothing happened until Trump took office when he signed EO 14181 (Emergency Measures to Provide Water Resources in California and Improve Disaster Response in Certain Areas), which delivered “the fastest debris-removal operation in United States history.”
“But since then, American families and small businesses affected by the wildfires have been forced to continue living in a nightmare of delay, uncertainty, and bureaucratic malaise as they remain displaced from their homes, often without a source of income, while State and local governments delay or prevent reconstruction by approving only a fraction of the permits needed to rebuild,” Trump noted.
The California Post reported that the wildfires destroyed approximately 16,000 structures.
Well, Los Angeles officials have issued only 2,600 permits to rebuild.
The Federal Government has approved numerous individual relief claims to provide financial support directly to owners of homes and businesses and help survivors repair, rebuild, return home, reopen their businesses, and restore their communities. But many homeowners and businesses have been unable to use these funds as they navigate overly burdensome, confusing, and inconsistent permitting requirements, duplicative permitting reviews, procedural bottlenecks, and administrative delays at the city, county, and State levels. Elected leaders have refused to take even the minimum action necessary to allow many of these survivors to move forward and rebuild their lives — the ultimate tragic failure of the State of California and City of Los Angeles to live up to their moral and legal obligations to their citizens. As a result, despite the Federal Government expeditiously clearing debris and doing its part to support survivors, the actions of State and local authorities have ensured that the vast majority of the tens of thousands of homes and businesses destroyed in the wildfires have not yet been rebuilt a year later.
The order strikes out all state permitting obstacles.
In other words, cut the red tape! It’s ridiculous that it’s taken so long.
In November, Leslie wrote that 75% of the Pacific Palisades fire victims remained in temporary housing.
Trump signed the order in the company of reporters from The California Post, which launched on Monday.
Trump reminisced about touring the wildfire damage and couldn’t believe no one was building anything.
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