• Fox News’ Newt Gingrich attacked Democrats for not using goats to prevent the California wildfires. 
• The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh: “I do think that bringing duels back would actually make a lot of things better.”

• Fox News’ Jesse Watters said California should be punished for “destroying Western civilization” by withholding disaster relief.
• In a podcast interview, Donald Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan promised to use the “private sector” and “deputize” citizens to help round up suspected undocumented immigrants.

• Fox News’ John Roberts downplayed concerns about the secretary of defense potentially drinking on the job: “What secretary of defense doesn’t have a bottle of bourbon whiskey in their office?” 
• Jesse Watters: “When a straight blonde female is singing at the inauguration, I think we’re back.” 
• Newsmax’s Greg Kelly suggested pardons for people who committed violence on January 6: “So the people who started fighting, I mean, do they not deserve a pardon, too?”

On Monday, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) floated the idea that aid to California should come with conditions. Many conservative media figures have followed his lead, coming out in support of playing political games with aid for victims of the wildfires in California. 

• On Fox & Friends, co-host Lawrence Jones called for “some conditions” to be tied to federal aid “to prevent this from happening ever again.” 
• Fox host Sean Hannity argued that California doesn’t “deserve one federal dollar” because it is a sanctuary state.
• Fox Business guest Michael Lee suggested that Congress “attach strings” to Federal Emergency Management Agency aid so that California can no longer be a “sanctuary state.”

TikTok has become a cesspool of conspiracy theories and misinformation as wildfires continue to devastate the Los Angeles region, and evidence suggests the platform's algorithm launched them into virality. These videos have already racked up millions of views, and the view count on each video reviewed by Media Matters far exceeds the number of followers on the respective account, suggesting that TikTok’s recommendation algorithm spread the content to millions of users. 

One prominent conspiracy theory involves users baselessly claiming that the wildfires were intentionally started to cover up alleged incriminating evidence in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ trial. Other users claim that the wildfires are biblical prophecies being fulfilled. Other videos feature fake images (seemingly artificial intelligence-generated) of the wildfires. 

Conspiracy theories often spike after natural disasters, and the LA wildfires are no exception. TikTok’s algorithm appears to be amplifying unfounded conspiracy theories to millions of users, fueling panic and uncertainty at a time when clear information is critical.

During his Senate confirmation hearing, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense and former Fox News host, Pete Hegseth, falsely claimed that military commanders are forced to “meet quotas to have a certain number of female infantry officers or infantry enlisted.” Hegseth further claimed this “disparages those women who are incredibly capable of meeting that standard.” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) pushed back on his claim, correctly noting, "Commanders do not have to have a quota for women in the infantry. It does not exist.” 

Right-wing media have repeatedly attacked nonexistent quotas or diversity efforts in various sectors, blaming them for alleged problems within education, corporate hiring practices, and for different safety incidents in the country.

• Only 6% of national TV news coverage of the Los Angeles wildfires connected the disaster to climate change. 
• Newsmax host Greg Kelly forcefully argued against confirming Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense.
• Meta’s founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, and its new chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, have been on a right-wing media tour, promoting policy rollbacks and currying favor with Donald Trump. 
• Donald Trump’s flip-flop on TikTok exposes the cravenness of his national security cabinet members, who have supported the ban. As Media Matters’ Matt Gertz writes, “Either they were all lying about the pressing national security threat of a ByteDance-controlled TikTok back then, or they are willingly leaving the United States exposed because they don’t want to stand up to the incoming president.”