Set aside for a moment the fact that the link between any mismanaged state forests and the Los Angeles fires is tenuous; the U.S. Forest Service, not California, owns the forest land around the Eaton Fire in Altadena, and the Pacific Palisades is surrounded by chaparral, not overgrown forest.

Advisers to California Gov. Gavin Newsom spent the week monitoring new White House advance staffers’ social media accounts, hoping for clues for where President Donald Trump might be headed when he lands in Los Angeles on Friday afternoon to talk about the wildfire damage.