Watch: Fed-up Citizens Go After Bass Right in Front of Trump - 'We Can't Even Get in There Without Trump!'
Los Angeles residents got an up-close look at the difference between President Donald Trump and their Democratic leadership on Friday, and for Mayor Karen Bass, it didn’t look so good.
At a meeting at the fire station in Pacific Palisades — a neighborhood ravaged by the blazes torching the city and county — residents saw Trump putting very public pressure on Bass to allow homeowners to start the rebuilding process immediately.
It was a moment that pitted a man who built a hugely successful career in real estate before going into politics against a social worker-turned Democratic politician: And Bass wasn’t impressive — or persuasive.
Check out the video here:
After welcoming Trump, Bass bragged that she’d “expedited” the permitting process and “cut the red tape.”
That’s when Trump interrupted.
“They are saying they will not be allowed to start for 18 months,” he said.
“That will not be the case. You can hold me to it,” Bass replied.
Trump evidently didn’t take her word for it.
“I met at least eight groups of homeowners, and I’m much more worried about the fact that they said it’s 18 months, exactly,” Trump told Bass.
“And they were devastated. They want to start now. They want to start removing things, they’re not allowed to do it.”
Fed-up residents at the meeting weren’t taking Bass’s word either, going after the mayor right in front of Trump.
“We were told last night 18 months, so if that’s not the answer, Mayor Bass, what is the answer?” a man asked, asked about the 1:55:00 mark in the video above. “Because that’s what we were all told last night.”
Trump and Bass then clashed over the debris-clearing process, with Bass committing the city and county to cleaning up building lots destroyed by the fire, but Trump insisting property owners should be allowed to do it themselves — as cheaper and more efficient.
Bass again tried to explain that city officials were streamlining the bureaucracy, but residents weren’t buying it.
“If individuals want to clear out their property, they can,” she said, clearly trying to walk a fine line between government control and appeasing the meeting crowd.
A woman in the audience exploded.
“We can’t even get in there without Trump!” she yelled from the back of the room, as the New York Post reported.
What Los Angeles residents saw, what the rest of the country is seeing, is the exposure of the manifest incompetence of the Democratic machine that runs Los Angeles and California as a whole — contrasted with the can-do spirit of entrepreneurial America.
Social media users noticed. There were many of the usual Trump haters out there, of course, but plenty of viewers drew the right lesson:
He said don’t take the spirit of these people by delaying the process with regulations
— Andrew Hart (@realahart) January 25, 2025
Karen Bass looks completely out of her depth. If the people need access now, they need access now—no waiting around
— John (@johnEiid) January 25, 2025
He’s showing them what a real leader looks like!! This is STRENGTH!!
— Rich G (@richgoingstrong) January 25, 2025
Bass, as USA Today has noted, is a 71-year-old physician assistant, community activist and social worker who entered the California state Assembly in 2004. She was elected to Congress in 2010 and became L.A.’s mayor in 2022.
That’s might be a fine resume for a garden-variety California leftist, a basic progressive political parasite whose biggest challenges are determining correct pronoun use and presiding over Pride parades. But it’s no preparation for dealing with the kind of crisis Los Angeles is facing — either from the fires or from the rebuilding.
What Trump is bringing is not only a lifetime spent dealing with exactly the kind of problems LA is facing, but a political philosophy of individual liberty and responsibility that’s anathema to Democrats like Bass.
Los Angeles, and the country, got an up-close look at both on Friday. It’s pretty clear which one Angelenos, and Americans, really need.
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