Jonathan Bernstein, Columnist

Why Has Trump Ignored California’s Wildfires?

Presidential inaction in the face of natural disasters is bad policy and terrible politics.

September 14, 2020 at 11:30 AM UTC

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics. A former professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio, he wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

All Americans.
Photographer: Josh Edelson/AFP

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President Donald Trump is now planning a visit to California after mostly ignoring the devastating fires up and down the Pacific Coast this year. Why did he fail to address the disaster for so long? One theory blames the Electoral College: Since Trump has no chance to win in California, Oregon or Washington, he has no incentive to expend resources on the problem, even if Republicans in those states are among those harmed.