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The mistakes made by officials in California have piled up almost as fast as fires have spread across Los Angeles this week. While I hate politicizing and pointing fingers when a crisis is still underway, the sheer amount of incompetence we’ve seen from the governor of California, the mayor of Los Angeles, the fire chief, and almost every other leader at all levels is astonishing. My fear is that with these people in charge, the situation will never be under control. Thank goodness for the brave firefighters and citizens doing the real work. 

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I just hope these firefighters have all the equipment they need. 

On Wednesday, Donald Trump, Jr. quoted an X post that suggested that the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) sent surplus equipment to Ukraine. 

Of course, the media didn’t like this. “Donald Trump Jr. finds way to blame Ukraine for spread of Los Angeles wildfires,” read an incredulous Politico headline. Others breathlessly hurried to “fact-check” the claim. 

Well, as it turns out, that’s pretty easy to do. The Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD) bragged about it on its own website: “LACoFD Joins National Effort to Help First Responders in Ukraine.” The statement read: 

On Thursday, March 17, 2022, the Los Angeles County Fire Department joined Fourth District Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn at Fire Station 171 in the City of Inglewood to announce they would join the national effort to gather and donate surplus equipment and gear overseas to help first responders in the country of Ukraine… Surplus items such as hoses, nozzles, turnouts, helmets, body armor, and other associated personal protective equipment will be collected and sent to assist with the shortage.

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An ABC affiliate confirmed the information at the time, stating that the supplies had been sitting in storage. But the liberal media wasn’t satisfied with this and continued to fact-check and “debunk” that this donation had nothing to do with the L.A. fires.  

“Debunked: Did sending aid to Ukraine leave LA Fire Department unprepared?” read a headline offered up by the ultra-liberal The Independent. But they really don’t offer any actual proof, aside from a random “certified wildfire mitigation specialist” saying as much. “So, there you have it, there is no link…” the reporter says with a hint of attitude. 

Newsweek admitted that it is true that Los Angeles sent supplies to Ukraine, but much of their “fact check” article is just them justifying the move because several other fire departments in California sent supplies to Ukraine when war first broke out in the European country. 

You get the idea — I went through several of these types of articles and not one of them was actually able to prove that the donations to the Ukraine have or have not played any role in what’s happening now. And several of them go as far as to suggest that Trump claimed the donations are a major reason why Los Angeles is in this mess in the first place, essentially putting words in his mouth based on a short X post. 

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Let me give you a real fact-check: 

Fact Number One: The junior Trump didn’t say that these donations left the LAFD unprepared. He implied that it could be part of the problem. I took his post to mean that this was just one more potential symptom that contributed to the disease. But to actually fact-check what he meant, you’d have to, you know, ask him.  

Fact Number Two: Regardless of the impact the donations may or may not have had, I’m certain most Americans have Ukraine fatigue. While Los Angeles is on fire, while another portion of the country faces brutal winter weather, while many Americans can’t afford groceries and utilities, and while many people in the South are still homeless after devastating hurricanes swept through in the fall, the Biden administration that has long outstayed its welcome announced this week that it’s gonna send another $500 million to Ukraine. I can’t name one American who supports this, but I can feel my blood pressure rising just writing about it. 

(And I’m sympathetic to the Ukrainian people — I made a financial donation to them myself when the war first broke out. But it was my hard-earned cash, not what I presume was taxpayer-purchased equipment that could come in handy one day.)

Fact Number Three: Not a single person in the media, myself included, knows whether the donations to Ukraine have had any impact on the fires. All we can do is make assumptions. My assumption is that it sounds like all government agencies in Southern California are so mismanaged that who even knows what’s happening? When it’s all over, I have a feeling you’ll be able to make a movie about the postmortem.  

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What I do know is this: The liberal media seems to be more focused on defending poor leadership and “fact-checking” every time someone affiliated with Donald Trump sneezes than it does covering the reality of the situation, and that’s absolutely disgusting and unfair to the people of California.