As the Eaton and Palisades fires raged in Los Angeles, more than a few Democrats and at least one Times columnist claimed President Trump would punish California rather than help it recover from the devastation. If the record-breaking cleanup of properties — led by the administration’s Environmental Protection Agency — is any indication, those fears were drastically overblown.
On Jan. 24, Trump signed Executive Order 14181 calling for the EPA to “expedite the bulk removal of contaminated and general debris” from the zones affected by the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, in order to accelerate efforts to help the survivors recover and rebuild their lives.
At the time, the EPA interpreted the order to mean that the initial cleanup of hazardous material had to be completed by Feb. 25. CBS News, reporting on the president’s ambitious one-month deadline, quoted anonymous government officials as highly skeptical that cleanup could be done that fast. In fact, most estimates were that debris removal would take at least three months and more than a year for some properties.
“An EPA official on the ground described the expedited cleanup deadline to CBS News as ‘bananas,’ while another former EPA official said it may be nearly impossible to meet this deadline,” the CBS News report said.
White House national security advisor Mike Walz oversees interagency coordination related to disaster response efforts. “Just three days after his inauguration,” Walz told me, “President Trump was on the ground in Los Angeles, saw first-hand the devastation from the wildfires and vowed a historic sense of urgency from federal agencies. Thanks to the president’s decisive action, the Trump administration led a cleanup of hazardous materials at a pace never seen before.”
It was and still is a Herculean cleanup effort: For the Phase 1 cleanup, crews cleared properties by hand, searching for such substances as bleach, paint, weed killer and pesticides, as well as batteries, propane tanks and asbestos. More than 9,000 properties were searched and cleared (4,852 homes in Altadena; 4,349 in the Palisades) and more than 1,000 lithium-ion batteries were disposed of in just 28 days.
EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Jan. 29, five days after Trump signed the Los Angeles cleanup order, told me he is “immensely proud of the dedicated men and women from the EPA who have worked tirelessly to complete the largest wildfire cleanup in the history of our agency.”
For a frame of reference on how quickly the Trump administration moved in Los Angeles, consider what happened following the 2023 fire that destroyed Maui, a place with far fewer properties. Phase 1 cleanup there took 112 days.
An official with the EPA told me the Trump administration, working with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, essentially threw everything but the kitchen sink at the president’s cleanup directive. The effort required more than 1,500 people — EPA staff, state workers, some members of the military — in nearly 50 teams “doing reconnaissance, hazardous materials removal and lithium ion battery work.”
State officials have praised Trump’s L.A. effort as well. In a letter dated Feb. 26, Yana Garcia, California secretary for environmental protection, thanked Zeldin profusely for the EPA’s “historic collaboration with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) to achieve this significant milestone.”
“When we met in early February, prior experiences suggested that Phase 1 could take months. Yet the work was completed in a matter of weeks,” Garcia wrote.
The Army Corps of Engineers was able to begin Phase 2 of the cleanup — requiring more complicated efforts at 4,400 properties — as Phase 1 was in progress, which again should help speed the work required to let residents rebuild.
The point is simple: The Trump administration is showing extreme governing competence in helping Los Angeles recover from the wildfires, and no signs at all of punishing a deeply blue state.
There is widespread, bipartisan agreement that federal and local officials are working well together. And despite some clear political differences the president has with certain California policies, it has obviously not affected the vital work of the federal government helping local citizens get back on their feet.
This was a massive test for Trump, and he passed it with flying colors. The pearl-clutching and political fear-mongering from Democrats was obviously overblown.
Scott Jennings is a CNN senior political commentator and a former special assistant to President George W. Bush.
