While wildfires continue to devastate areas of L.A. and people search for answers for how the blazes got so out of control, one narrative that’s gotten a lot of attention revolves around budget cuts to the city’s fire department. Whether or not fire-department funding really is to blame is complicated, but you know who has something to say about it? Khloé Kardashian. On Friday, Kardashian took to Instagram to air out her grievances with L.A. mayor Karen Bass.
Kardashian posted screenshots of a Fox 11 interview with L.A. fire-department chief Kristin Crowley, who told reporters the city’s firefighters are “understaffed, underresourced, and underfunded.” “Yes, it was cut,” Crowley said of her department’s budget, “and it did impact our ability to provide service.”
Crowley reportedly wrote a series of memos last year expressing concern that budget cuts to the fire department would hinder its ability to respond to emergencies. During a press conference on Thursday, Mayor Karen Bass denied that budget cuts had any impact on the fire department’s response to the wildfires.
But Kardashian apparently disagrees. “I stand by YOU Chief Crowley!!!!” Kardashian wrote on her Instagram Stories. “Mayor Bass you are a joke!!!!” A bold political statement from a woman who recently launched a podcast on Elon Musk’s social-media platform. In fact, Kardashian seems to be echoing one of Donald Trump’s primary talking points about the fires — he recently accused Bass and California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, of “gross incompetence” on Truth Social. Neither Trump nor Kardashian have mentioned that climate change — a phenomenon the Kardashians and their infamously heavy water usage brazenly ignore — is a major contributor to worsening wildfires throughout the U.S.
On Sunday, Kardashian continued to post through it, throwing a thank-you message to firefighters and first responders up on her Stories. “We are deeply grateful for your bravery, compassion and commitment to attempting to keeping Californians safe,” she wrote.