Elon Musk promotes a video he claims has saved “thousands of lives” from wildfires

Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, has vast resources at his disposal to provide relief to those struggling around the world. So when Musk saw the good people of Los Angeles reeling from wildfires that destroyed thousands of homes and killed at least two dozen people, he jumped into action. Well, he did the billionaire oligarch version of jumping into action.

Musk sent eight e-vans loaded with Red Vines, bottled water and oranges to local police stations. Cybertrucks have included Starlink Internet to provide some services to people in the vicinity. The billionaire shared a video on X about how he saved “thousands of lives” from forest fires. seriously.

“I apologize to those expecting Cybertruck delivery in California within the next few days,” Musk tweeted on Sunday. “We need to use these trucks as mobile base stations to provide power to Starlink Internet stations in areas of Los Angeles that have no connectivity. A new truck will be delivered this weekend.

Tesla has provided an inventory of cybertrix on x, With three at sheriff’s departments in Altadena, two in Pasadena, and three in Zuma Beach and Malibu. These e-trucks may not be very useful to the general population as they only carry a few groceries located in the parking lots of police stations. But Tesla also provides power in some locations with its Megapack portable energy storage system.

Musk retweeted people who praised his incredible generosity over the weekend, including an account called @DesireeAmerica4, which claimed that Musk had “stepped forward in a big way” by providing some Starlink internet. “Say what you want about the man, but who else makes moves like that when it’s necessary?” the account he asked.

The video itself even says that Musk has “saved thousands of lives” through his actions, in a video that appears to include an AI-generated voiceover with a background shot of Musk posing in front of burning buildings. It’s obviously a very sickening thing to watch, even if it’s not a tragedy in which dozens were killed.

The threat isn’t even over, as winds have picked up again and the Palisades Fire is only 14% contained with 23,713 acres burned, according to View the assignment. The Eaton Fire is burning 14,117 acres with only 33% containment.

Elon Musk has gone to great lengths, donating Starlink to help firefighters and people in Los Angeles stay connected during the chaos. Say what you want about the guy, but who else makes moves like that when it counts? pic.twitter.com/TlKozxKVjs

– Desiree (@DesireeAmerica4) January 12, 2025

“Elon Musk made an amazing decision after the Los Angeles wildfires,” the video’s automated narrator said.

“In order to save thousands of lives, the traditional communications towers in Los Angeles were reduced to ashes in the fire, and the disaster area lost all signals,” the narrator continued meaninglessly. “However, people could still watch live coverage of the fire. This was all because at this critical moment, Musk generously donated Starlink terminals to Los Angeles, which restored communications.”

The video has been viewed by more than 1.5 million people at the time of this writing, thanks to Musk retweeting it. It’s not entirely clear who “Desiree” is, though the account has a blue checkmark that anyone can purchase for $8.

Musk, who is currently worth $412 billion according to Forbes, has long touted his charitable giving in times of crisis while actually contributing very little. Perhaps the most famous time was when a children’s soccer team got stuck in a Thai cave during the summer of 2018. The event gained global attention, so Musk naturally wanted some of that attention for himself, so he showed up in Thailand with his own minivan. -Sub-design to save children. Unsurprisingly, critics describe Musk’s presence as a publicity stunt.

When an expert criticized the small submarine as unworkable, Musk said: The man called “Bedo” and even hired a private investigator to destroy his reputation. This guy sued for defamation but lost after Musk insisted he didn’t mean “pedo” in the literal sense.

When people point out that Musk isn’t actually contributing much to these rescue efforts and is instead using them for his own propaganda purposes, the billionaire’s defenders will inevitably ask, “What are you doing to help?” Because they fail to understand how anything works. Musk gets huge benefits from these relatively cheap stunts. And while it’s nice for Musk to give some cops some groceries and internet access, it’s a pretty pathetic effort in the grand scheme of things.

Take, for example, the From address WGN9 Monday: “Elon Musk donates Cyber ​​Trucks to provide power and internet to Los Angeles community amid devastation caused by wildfires.” If the average person on the street temporarily moved his car to a parking lot for a few days to give him some limited Internet access and a few bananas, would anyone describe that as “donating” a car? Of course not. But Musk gets this kind of generous coverage, even though he’ll take those electronic trucks and sell them to whatever guy comes next with a midlife crisis.

Musk knows how to navigate the media ecosystem, no matter how much he complains about the mainstream media’s bias against him. And the billionaire is about to use that knowledge to his advantage and in newly scary ways as a senior advisor to the incoming Trump administration. the New York Times He had new reports over the weekend about how DOGE, his slash-and-burn committee, will be used when Trump takes office on January 20. It looks as if it will be a collective curse of gigantic proportions as unqualified idiots try to make decisions about how to spend public money while almost certainly enriching themselves.

Musk has criticized California’s fire management strategy, even traveling to the state over the weekend to live-stream with a member of the Los Angeles Fire Command team to find some sort of deficiency he could pin on local leaders. Musk was transparently trying to get an answer that confirmed his biases about why fire hydrants exist Dry runninga very real problem that firefighters faced.

“Was water available? I understand this was not a problem in Malibu, is that correct?” Musk said during the live broadcast.

The unidentified firefighter responded: “There was water, we have water tanks.”

The firefighter went on to explain that water reserves had simply been diminished by historical fires. And there’s not much you can do to produce enough water when tens of thousands of acres are burning under these dry conditions and horrific winds.

“The amount of water that we’re flowing, there’s really no water system that can keep up that pace. So we have to bring in water tenders, which are big water tanks, you know, 2,500- to 3,000-gallon trucks, and they’ll come in, and that’s what we have to do to compensate,” he said. The firefighter continued.

Musk did not stop at responding, stammering, “My understanding is that along…correct me if I’m wrong, along…in Malibu along the coast there was no shortage of water. In the levees there was a shortage of water in A certain point or is that not accurate?

“We were running an amount of water that the system couldn’t handle,” the firefighter explained calmly. “It was overbearing, just because of the amount of water the firefighters were using.”

“Well, looks good,” Musk said, sounding defeated.

California Governor Gavin Newsom A Video clip From a meeting with Musk on Sunday, saying that the billionaire “was attacked by firefighters for his lies.”

.@ElonMusk The firefighters exposed him because of his lies. pic.twitter.com/3Q8xFZaQ3S

– Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) January 13, 2025

No, Musk didn’t save thousands of lives as wildfires continue to burn in Los Angeles. But he will undoubtedly continue to spread misinformation that seeks to serve the MAGA agenda. This will almost certainly get worse after January 20th.