Actor Mel Gibson lauded President Donald Trump as “daddy” taking “his belt off” during his visit to survey the deadly aftermath of California’s wildfires.
Speaking with Sean Hannity on the Fox News anchor’s eponymous show on Friday night, the actor-director cheered Trump’s rebuke of the local response to the wildfires. “It’s like daddy arrived and he’s taking his belt off, you know?,” he said.
In a viral moment at a press briefing with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, Trump urged the mayor to use more of her emergency resources.
“You have emergency powers, just like I do, and I’m exercising my emergency powers. You have to exercise them also,” said Trump, scolding Bass.
“How bad has it been?” Hannity asked Gibson. “You’ve been living through these wildfires. You read about hydrants that don’t have water. You read about cutting firefighters’ budgets, you read about reservoirs that are empty. I mean, it’s gotta be frustrating.”
Gibson—who lost his Los Angeles home in the blazes and has since been appointed one of Trump’s ‘special ambassadors’ to Hollywood—replied, “Well, it is. There are those that say, ‘They must’ve done it on purpose.’ I won’t go that far, but if they didn’t do it on purpose, I think they certainly facilitated it.”
Earlier this month, Gibson sat down with Fox News’s Laura Ingraham and shared a conspiracy theory that the wildfires may have been “commissioned” as part of a nefarious effort to move tenants off otherwise valuable land and property. But even the actor admitted the theory was “insane.”
During his Friday interview with Hannity, Gibson added that his “heart goes out to all the other residents.”
“You meet people all the time who’ve lost their homes. And you talk and commiserate and buck each other up, and everyone’s putting on a brave face. They’re a good bunch out here,” said Gibson.
He added, “I’m glad Trump’s here at the moment ... So I think, we’ll get some results here quickly.”
