President Donald Trump is helping Californians in Los Angeles recover faster from the wildfires that devastated their communities a year ago.
The president on Friday signed an executive order to speed up the rebuilding process after the Pacific Palisades and Eaton fires tore through the area, the New York Post reported Tuesday.
The fires burned down countless homes and left thousands of people with no place to go. One woman told ABC 11 on the one-year anniversary of the devastating event, “It was like being in a zombie apocalypse movie is what I felt like.”
Thirty-one people died as a result of the fires, the outlet noted:
In the wake of the lingering devastation, President Trump, who is a former real estate developer, is taking action.
According to the Post, Trump said Friday, “I want to see if we can take over the city and state and just give the people their permits they want to build.”
He also laid blame at the feet of Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) when it came to the slow rebuilding process. The outlet said over 16,000 buildings were destroyed but officials have issued a mere 2,600 construction permits.
The text of the executive order (EO) read:
One year ago, the California State and Los Angeles city and county governments failed to contain wildfires that ravaged Los Angeles and consumed nearly 40,000 acres of homes and businesses. 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.
The EO also said debris removal did not begin until the Trump administration initiated its swift removal so community members could begin recovering safely.
The EO noted the families and small businesses in the area were living in a “nightmare of delay, uncertainty, and bureaucratic malaise” while they remained displaced and as officials delayed or prevented reconstruction.
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“It is the policy of my Administration that federally funded reconstruction projects for homes and businesses in the wildfire-impacted neighborhoods of the Pacific Palisades and Eaton Canyon areas proceed with the maximum speed consistent with public safety, and that Federal assistance not be frustrated by unnecessary, duplicative, or obstructive permitting requirements that prevent families and businesses from rebuilding,” the EO stated.
Pacific Palisades resident Jessica Rogers lost everything in the devastating fires. When she learned about the federal government’s plan to help rebuild, she said, “We’re so desperate. We really need the help. We cannot do this on our own. Our state’s not capable, our city’s not capable, this is not something that requires a village, it requires the nation. We need our federal government to come in.”
In January 2025, Newsom signed an EO to suspend regulations that would impede rebuilding, per Breitbart News.
Aftermath of the Eaton Wildfires — One Year Later
“Newsom implementing such extreme measures to enable the rebuilding of homes only further illustrates the immense damage caused by the wildfires, which carry an estimated $135 billion price tag, though it will likely increase with more assessment,” the outlet said.
However, over 1,000 fire victims gathered in the fire-ravaged area on the one-year anniversary of the tragedy to accuse Newsom and Bass of negligence during the tragedy that took so much from them, Breitbart News reported.
“As reported by numerous outlets, the failures included useless fire hydrants, brush not maintained, dry local reservoirs, fire trucks out of service, and no staging of fire crews in anticipation of the high winds that had been predicted for days,” the article read, adding, “Most notably, criticism also included the failure of fire officials to monitor and completely extinguish an arson fire on state land a week before winds apparently reignited it and caused the January 7, 2025, blaze that spread into Malibu and other parts of the west side.”