![](https://media-cdn.socastsrm.com/wordpress/wp-content/blogs.dir/2224/files/2019/01/CAEV122-1117_2018_232828.jpg)
AP FACT CHECK: Trump’s misdirection on Calif fires, climate
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is going too far in assigning most of the blame for California’s devastating wildfires on the state’s forest management.
In comments over the weekend, he called forest management a “big problem” and suggested that California officials needed to do a much better job. But most of California’s 33 million acres of forests are under federal or private control, not the state’s. Fire scientists say that Trump also neglects a larger effect from climate change in promoting abnormally dry conditions and dead trees, creating fuel for fire.
In a week honouring the sacrifice of America’s warriors, Trump appeared to claim that he visited Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day last year and asserted that veterans, thanks to him, no longer face long waits for medical care. Neither is true.
Capping the weekend, the president also misspelled the name of a Democratic lawmaker in an unfortunate way and did not correct himself.