When Gavin Newsom and Kimberly Guilfoyle split, he walked away with much more goodwill than his increasingly right-leaning ex-wife, but the tides have shifted in her favor. The governor of California is being hit from all sides as criticism about his handling of the unprecedented California wildfires, which have decimated communities in Pacific Palisades, Malibu, and more. Since January 7, 2025, the fires have claimed the lives of over two dozen people, displaced over 150,000 evacuees -- including a long list of celebrities who've lost their homes in the flames. The fires have caused what experts are estimating to be upwards of $150 billion worth of damage, according to AccuWeather (via Fortune).
The main complaint attached to Newsom is his reported decision to dramatically decrease the Los Angeles Fire Department's budget in 2024. Over the past few days, there have been reports claiming that Newsom slashed $100 million of the state's wildfire prevention budget, which folks feel inhibited the firefighters' ability to battle the flames. While speaking with Fox News, Newsom's team swiftly denied this narrative. "The governor has doubled the size of our firefighting army, built the world's largest aerial firefighting fleet and the state has increased the forest management ten-fold since he took office," said Izzy Gardon, the governor's director of communications in a statement. "Facts matter."
However, this is far from the only fault that social media has found in Newsom amid the terrifying California wildfires.