Trump, who initially threatened to cut funding to California, reiterated his attack on forest management after his visit to Paradise, though he did grant California’s requests for federal funds. Trump, who is a climate change denier, said California should follow the lead of Finland by “raking and cleaning” its forests.
President Donald Trump: “I was with the president of Finland, and he said, 'We have a much different—we're a forest nation.’ He called it a forest nation. And they spend a lot of time on raking and cleaning and doing things. And they don’t have any problem.”
Trump’s comments appeared to baffle Finland’s president, who told a Helsinki newspaper he didn’t remember discussing raking forests with Trump during a meeting earlier this month. Trump’s comment drew ridicule on social media, spawning the hashtag #MakeAmericaRakeAgain. This comes as the media monitoring nonprofit Media Matters for America found that national broadcast news networks mentioned “climate change” in less than 4 percent of their coverage of the deadly California wildfires.