"Fight like hell."

Trump gave LA-area homeowners a game plan to overcome bureaucracy and quickly rebuild.

When California Governor Gavin Newsom originally invited Trump to visit the wildfire sites in the Los Angeles area earlier this month, it was primarily as a political dare. Both Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who was in Africa as the fires raged, were under tremendous political pressure due to their obvious mishandling of their respective spheres. Newsom must have thought that his daring Trump - who repeatedly criticized him over his water (or lack thereof) policy - to visit would somehow shift the spotlight away from him and towards Trump.

Let’s put aside the fact that when Newsom invited Trump, he wasn’t president yet; “Biden” was. The problem now for Newsom is not only did Trump accept the invitation. Trump used that visit to energize homeowners to rebuild their lives as quickly as possible. (Trump’s game plan has broader political implications, but I’ll address that later.)

The Los Angeles Game Plan

Last Friday, after Trump toured Pacific Palisades to witness the destruction caused by the wildfires, he participated in a roundtable with several local officials. His tense interactions with Mayor Bass and Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA) made the rounds on social media. However, Trump made three moves during the roundtable that gave emotional and political support to the homeowners who want to rebuild their lives as quickly as possible.

First, he appointed Richard Grenell as his point person on the LA wildfire recovery efforts. In other words, through Grenell, Trump has put political capital into helping impacted homeowners recover quickly.

Second, he told those homeowners to “fight like hell” to put pressure on any bureaucracy that’s standing in their way to rebuild. Reinforced by local leaders such as Traci Park (LA City council member representing Pacific Palisades) and Kathryn Barger (LA County Supervisor representing Altadena), Trump basically gave homeowners permission to organize and relentlessly confront bureaucrats hiding behind their procedures to eventually give in so they can quickly rebuild their homes.

Third, Trump told homeowners to look for the weakest link when working with agencies. Notwithstanding the waivers politicians may have made, there’s at least one agency somewhere that is keeping homeowners from moving forward. Homeowners need to continue browbeat and harass those weakest links until they cave.

The Game Plan in Action

While only a couple of days have passed since Trump’s visit, one can already see his game plan at work.

On Saturday, Grenell asked Country Supervisor Barger on X why the LA County Department of Public Health still prevented homeowners from clearing their lots until an “approved government agency” gave them the green light. He took it a step further and called for Barbara Ferrer, the head of that agency, to be fired as a prerequisite for federal funding.

The homeowners have also shown energy in interacting with local government. After residents began circumventing check points that previously prevented them from visiting their homes, Mayor Bass began lifting evacuation zones.) They showed up during in force during a recent town hall discussing how to recover from the wildfires. Houman David Hemmati, a Santa Monica-based ophthalmologist and political commentator, has been using his X account to highlight common sense approaches that are akin to those Jay Bhattacharya proposed during COVID. LA developer and former candidate Rick Caruso has joined the chorus of complaining about local authorities’ lack of urgency. Whether all of these people have sufficiently organized to counter the bureaucratic morass, and whether Park and Borger have sufficiently utilized their anger, remains to be seen.

Which leads to the final point of Trump’s game plan: there are several agencies vying for the title of the weakest link. In addition to the LA County Department of Public Health, the EPA and the US Army Corps of Engineers are in for the running. As a demolition contractor who responded to Caruso’s above-mentioned post remarked, given the current permit approval process, it could take up to 18 to 24 months before work can begin to rebuild.

Fortunately, we are in the early stages of recovery. Local political figures, community leaders, and recovery experts can work together to building a united front to state, country, and local authorities. This includes making sure that homeowners in both Pacific Palisades and Altadena are on the same page on what needs to be done. This would also help Grenell articulate to local governments more clearly the specific steps they need to take to remove unnecessary barriers, especially if these steps become conditions for receiving federal funding.

Political Implications

While impacted homeowners have a lot of work to do before their lives get “back to normal” (which shouldn’t have to include fighting bureaucrats), there are a number of implications arising from the game plan Trump laid out for them.

First, while Grenell is there to provide some level of political pressure on their behalf, Trump basically told them that no one is there to save them. If they want to rebuild their lives, they will need to do it themselves. They will need to organize and act if they want to live their lives as they see fit. They need to put the bureaucrats in their place. No one else is going to do it for them.

Second, if homeowners are successful in cutting red tape as they rebuild, this provides Angelenos and California residents a blueprint to push back against the administrative state that has ossified California life for decades. After all, if the Coastal Commission can do such-and-such for Pacific Palisades, why should anyone else have to deal with their nonsense?

Finally, Trump’s game plan is a political pincer move that is new in American, let alone Californian, politics. The California political class, and the administrative state supporting it, now finds itself in the middle of a hostile President and an increasingly hostile resident base. They will now have to justify why they have the priorities they have. They’re not used to this. They’re used to setting the tone, however insane that tone may have been. The current California leadership is prepared to give goodies and say empty platitudes, not actually govern. As the recovery from the wildfires evolve, and additional issues in the state arise, these people may find themselves increasingly exposed for being bankrupt, in all senses of the word. Such circumstances could lead to very rapid changes in how the state operates.

This approach can also be applied elsewhere in the country. A good example of that would be Tom Homan’s work in Chicago arresting and deporting illegal immigrants living there, regardless of what the local political machine wants. Local residents, including former Democrats, have praised Homan’s efforts. Democratic leaders are simply not prepared for such pincer moves.

Newsom dared Trump to visit Los Angeles. Now that he has, given everything that has transpired since then, Newsom may wonder to himself why he took such a politically stupid act.