Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California has once again found a way to turn taxpayer dollars into kindling for his ideological agenda.
The latest example comes in the form of the states Tribal Wildfire Resilience program, a $24 million initiative that appears to prioritize racial preferences and progressive virtue-signaling over measurable results in fire prevention. According to Western Journal, the program, administered by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), funnels money to tribal groups and other nonprofits to support American Indians, labeled cultural fire practitioners, in conducting brush clearing and controlled burns modeled on pre-modern tribal practices.
On paper, the idea might sound like a nod to history and tradition, but in practice, taxpayers have been left in the dark about what they are getting for their money. How much brush has been cleared, how many acres treated, and what impact this has had on wildfire risk remain unanswered questions, as California has released no data to justify the expenditure.
This is not an indictment of the tribes themselves, who, like all Californians, have a stake in preventing catastrophic fires and protecting their communities. Indeed, as critics have noted, $24 million is a rounding error in a state and federal bureaucracy that routinely burns through far larger sums with even less accountability, and one could probably find $24 million between the couch cushions at the Pentagon.
What makes this particular program so infuriating to many residents is the ideological framing that surrounds it, which reflects the broader woke ethos dominating Sacramento. Rather than presenting the initiative as a straightforward fire-management strategy, state officials have cloaked it in the language of historical grievance and racial redress, turning public safety into yet another vehicle for progressive identity politics.
Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot, who effectively oversees the program, did not primarily defend it on the grounds of efficiency or effectiveness in combating wildfires. Instead, he invoked Californias dark past, declaring that the state originated in a state-sanctioned policy of genocide, and implying that the governors effort would somehow restore land management authority to the leadership of California Native American tribes.
Newsom, of course, has no serious plan to hand over control of Californias vast public lands to tribal governments, nor has he proposed any concrete framework for such a transfer. But in elite liberal circles the kind that frequent places like the French Laundry, where Newsom notoriously dined during COVID lockdowns such rhetoric plays well, even if it does little to protect ordinary Californians from the next inferno.
More troubling still are the programs apparent race-based distinctions in training and certification, which raise serious constitutional concerns. As part of this commitment to cultural burning, the City Journal wrote, California has created separate fire-certification processes for nontribal and tribal populations. White, black, Latino, and Asian fire bosses must receive technical certifications, including a 40-hour burn-boss course and, in some cases, a federal certificate. Cultural fire practitioners, by contrast, are certified through simple tribal recognition that a person has substantial experience burning for cultural purposes.
Such a dual-track system, in which one group must meet rigorous technical standards while another is effectively exempted based on ancestry and informal recognition, is almost begging for a legal challenge. Should anyone bring the matter before the courts, the U.S. Supreme Court which has recently shown a willingness to strike down race-based preferences in education and elsewhere would almost certainly view these provisions with deep skepticism.
None of this should be construed as a criticism of tribal members who may, in fact, possess genuine expertise in traditional burning techniques. As even skeptics acknowledge, cultural fire practitioners may well have substantial experience in using controlled fires to clear brush, and early American history is replete with accounts of Native Americans skillfully managing landscapes in precisely this way.
The real question is why, if these skills are authentic and valuable, they require a special stream of public funding and a separate, racially defined certification regime. Why must Gavin Newsom one of the whitest of white men who ever lived posture as the benefactor and instructor of traditional tribal practices, rather than simply holding all fire managers to the same professional standards and outcomes?
This episode also lands at a politically awkward moment for Newsom, who has long been floated as a future Democratic presidential contender. In February, CNN data analyst Harry Enten memorably described the prospective 2028 Democratic field as a clown car, and Newsom, given his national profile and relentless self-promotion, might be the cars driver.
Voters across the country are increasingly aware of the governors record, and stories of his mismanagement have become difficult to ignore even for a sympathetic media. In a 2023 debate, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida seared Newsoms reputation by linking his name to the human feces-covered streets of San Francisco, turning Californias urban decay into a national punchline.
When destructive wildfires struck Los Angeles in January 2025, Newsoms administration again appeared unprepared and ineffective, squandering an opportunity to demonstrate competence in a crisis. One cannot help but wonder what Los Angeles firefighters could have done with $24 million that instead went into a program long on rhetoric and short on transparent results.
The governors credibility took another hit when a viral video captured him being confronted by a distressed constituent during that wildfire emergency. In the footage, Newsom falsely claimed to have then-President Joe Biden on the phone, and when challenged, he lied about having then-President Joe Biden on the phone, and then the governor doubled down on the lie, reinforcing the perception of a leader more interested in theatrics than truth.
Taken together, the Tribal Wildfire Resilience initiative looks less like a serious public-safety measure and more like another ideologically driven experiment in identity politics at taxpayer expense. As Californians brace for yet another fire season, they are left to hope that the next blaze will not expose, once again, the gap between Newsoms soaring rhetoric and the hard reality on the ground a gap that, for all the talk of cultural burning and historical justice, $24 million has done nothing visible to close.
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