When a devastating wildfire hit California in November 2018, a powerful CEO went on Twitter to ask how his company could help. That CEO’s name was Elon Musk.
What a difference six years can make. The contrast between Musk’s 2018 tweet and his response to the infernos currently raging through Southern California is stark. This time, he has mostly used his platform throughout the disaster to attack some familiar targets—Democratic politicians, deregulation, and, incredibly, DEI.
The pronounced change in Musk’s online behavior during a crisis reflects a broader evolution, though. Once considered an environmental crusader for making electric cars seem cool, the Tesla CEO now mocks the very idea that climate change could play a major role in historical California wildfires arriving in the middle of winter.
The scope of the fires’ damage is, so far, enormous. As the New York Times reports, the Palisades and Eaton fires are already the two most destructive ever to hit Los Angeles. The blazes have killed at least five people as of this writing, and forced tens of thousands to evacuate, while burning up more than 27,000 acres and 2,000 structures.
According to scientists, climate change is playing a role by “altering rainfall patterns and making droughts both more likely and more intense.” What reportedly created the conditions for the fires’ rapid spread is Southern California’s unusual dryness during 2024, with only .29 inches of rain since last May, along with hurricane-force Santa Ana winds that reached speeds of more than 75 mph. Extreme dryness makes fires more likely to spark, and robust winds help them spread easier. Complicating matters, the howling winds on Tuesday forced the Los Angeles Fire Department to ground the aircraft they typically use for aerial firefighting.
All of these factors help explain how a flurry of wildfires could rage out of control during what is typically California’s rainy season. Musk, however, had some alternate theories about what caused so much destruction.
He went on a retweeting blitz, cosigning wild accusations about various Democrats and conspiracy theories about California’s water reserves. Particularly alarming was Musk’s focus on DEI, suggesting that the L.A. fire department’s “racial equity plan” contributed to the devastation. Firefighters working hard to put out powerful blazes were faced with racial hostility flowing in their direction from some of Musk’s 211.7 million followers on X.
Inexplicably blaming DEI for a wide variety of issues has been a popular tactic for conservatives for the past few years, and Musk has been no exception. Last January, for example, he faulted Boeing’s recent DEI practices for the infamous Alaska Airlines malfunction in which one of the plane’s panels blew out mid-flight. What’s different now, however, is that this isn’t a disaster that’s already happened, but one that is still ongoing. At least Vivek Ramaswamy waited a week after the deadly Maui wildfire catastrophe in 2023 before blaming DEI for it.
Musk could have been sharing the amazing things the fire department is doing to deal with this crisis, but instead he was vilifying its leadership and reducing some members to diversity hires. He could have been providing useful information for displaced families, but instead he was offering rage bait. And he could have used this crisis as an environmental teaching moment—the kind one might have expected from the founder of Tesla—but, instead, he shared snarky tweets that dismiss climate change fears as boy-who-cries-wolf fakery.
Musk has had a contentious relationship with California, despite the state leading the U.S. in electric vehicles and charging locations. He moved the headquarters of X and SpaceX from California to Texas last year, after publicly sparring with Governor Gavin Newsom. (He had already moved Tesla to Austin three years prior.) Tellingly, he claimed the final straw had nothing to do with business or environmental concerns, but ideological ones. He objected to a law banning districts from requiring schools to notify parents if their child asks to change their gender identity.
Eventually, Musk must have realized how he was coming across in the current disaster. On Wednesday night, he tweeted that his company SpaceX would provide StarLink terminals to ensure connectivity throughout Los Angeles. He also clarified on Thursday morning that he does indeed believe climate change is real, just that it’s “much slower than alarmists claim.” He also finally retweeted an empathetic call for disaster relief.
By then, however, the damage had already been done.
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