"The wildfires battering Los Angeles County, from the San Gabriel Valley to Pacific Palisades to the Hollywood Hills, have resulted in widespread destruction and at least five deaths so far. President-elect Donald Trump has responded to the tragedy by claiming that California Gov. Gavin Newsom is to blame and railing against him on his Truth Social platform.

Historian Nicole Hemmer, known for her focus on the conservative movement, discussed Trump's reaction to the wildfires during an appearance on The New Republic's podcast, "the Daily Blast." And she laid out some reasons why she finds his comments so troubling.

Trump, Hemmer lamented, immediately went into "us versus them" mode and showed his inability to respond to a crisis in a presidential manner.

Hemmer told Sargent, "It's actually this deeper fascistic strategy of 'us' versus 'them.' And what do you do with 'them?' You punish them at every opportunity. If you have power, you use that power to protect your own and to harm others. And that is absolutely the philosophy of the Trump Administration that just becomes very clear in these moments of crisis."