Elon Musk promotes video claiming to have saved ‘thousands of lives’ from wildfires

Elon Musk, the richest human being in the world, has vast resources at his disposal to provide relief to those who are struggling around the world. So when Musk saw the good people of Los Angeles enduring wildfires that destroyed thousands of homes and killed at least 24 people, he sprang into action. Well, he did the billionaire oligarch version of jumping into action.

Musk sent eight cybertrucks with some red vines, bottled water and oranges to local police stations. Cybertrucks turned on Starlink internet to provide some services to people in the immediate vicinity. And the billionaire shared a video on X about how he supposedly saved “thousands of lives” from the wildfires. seriously.

“Apologies to those expecting Cybertruck deliveries in California in the next few days,” Musk tweeted on Sunday. “We need to use these trucks as mobile base stations to provide power to Starlink Internet terminals in areas of Los Angeles without connectivity. A new truck will be delivered at the end of the week.”

Tesla provided an inventory of X’s Cybertrucks, with three in the sheriff’s departments in Altadena, two in Pasadena and three in Zuma Beach and Malibu. These Cybertrucks may not be of much use to the general population, as they only contain a handful of groceries located in police station parking lots. But Tesla also provides power to some locations through its Megapack portable energy storage system.

Musk retweeted people who praised his incredible generosity over the weekend, including an account called @DesireeAmerica4, which claimed Musk had “maximized his time” by providing some Starlink internet. “Say what you will about the guy, but who else makes moves like that when it matters?” the bill he asked.

The video itself even says that Musk has “saved thousands of lives” through his actions, in a video that appears to feature an AI-generated voice-over with b-roll of Musk striking poses in front of burning buildings. Obviously, it’s pretty ugly to watch, even if it’s not a tragedy where dozens are killed.

The threat hasn’t even passed as winds have picked up again and the Palisades fire is only 14 percent contained with 23,713 acres burned, according to Watch Duty. The Eaton Fire is burning at 14,117 acres at just 33% containment.

Elon Musk stepped up in a big way, donating Starlink to help firefighters and people in Los Angeles stay connected during the chaos. Say what you will about the guy, but who else makes moves like that when it matters? pic.twitter.com/TlKozxKVjs

— Desiree (@DesireeAmerica4) January 12, 2025

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

“Saving thousands of lives, Los Angeles’ traditional communications towers have already been reduced to ashes in the fire and the disaster area has lost all signal,” the narrator continued pointlessly. “Yet people can still watch a live feed of the fire. That was all, because at this critical moment, Musk generously donated Starlink terminals to Los Angeles, restoring communication.

The video has been viewed by over 1.5 million people at the time of writing, likely thanks to Musk’s retweet. It’s not entirely clear who “Desiree” is, although the account has a blue tick that anyone can buy for $8.

Musk, who is currently worth $412 billion according to Forbes, has long touted his own charitable donations in times of crisis while actually contributing very little. Perhaps the most scandalous moment was when a children’s soccer team got stuck in a Thai cave in the summer of 2018. This event attracted international attention, so Musk naturally wanted some of that attention for himself, appearing in Thailand with his own “mini-sub” design to save the children. Not surprisingly, critics called Musk’s presence a publicity stunt.

When one expert criticized the mini-sub as not working, Musk – called the boy “pedo” and even hired a private detective to ruin his reputation. That person sued for defamation, but lost after Musk insisted he didn’t mean “pedo” in the literal sense.

Whenever people point out that Musk isn’t really contributing much to these rescue efforts and is instead using them for his own publicity purposes, the billionaire’s defenders will inevitably ask “what are you doing to help?” as they fail to understand how everything works. Musk reaps huge benefits from these relatively inexpensive stunts. And while it’s nice that Musk gave some cops a few groceries and internet access, it’s a pretty pathetic effort in the grand scheme of things.

Take for example a headline from WGN9 on Monday: “Elon Musk donates Cybertrucks to provide Los Angeles community with power and internet amid wildfire devastation.” If the average person on the street temporarily moved their car into a parking lot for a few days to give limited internet access and a few bananas, would anyone characterize this as a “donation” of a car? Of course not. But Musk gets such generous coverage, even though he’ll take those Cybertrucks and sell them to whatever dude with a midlife crisis comes along next.

Musk knows how to work the media ecosystem, no matter how much he whines that the mainstream media is biased against him. And the billionaire is about to use that knowledge to his advantage and in frightening new ways as a top adviser to the incoming Trump administration. The New York Times there were new reports over the weekend about how DOGE, his slash-and-burn commission, will likely be used when Trump takes office on January 20. And it sounds like it’s going to be a cluster of phenomenal proportions as unqualified morons try to make decisions about how public money is spent, almost certainly enriching themselves.

Musk has been critical of California’s wildfire management strategy, even traveling to the state over the weekend to live-stream with a member of the Los Angeles Fire Command’s team to find any flaw he could pin on local leaders. Musk was very transparently trying to get an answer that confirmed his biases about why fire hydrants runs drya very real problem faced by firefighters.

“Was there water? I understand that this is not an issue in Malibu, is that correct?” Musk said during the live broadcast.

“There was water, we have water tanks,” the unidentified firefighter replied.

The firefighter explained that the water reserves were simply depleted by the historic fires. And there’s not much you can do to produce enough water when tens of thousands of acres are burning in such horrendously dry and windy conditions.

“The amount of water that’s flowing, there’s really no water system that can keep up with that rate. So we have to put in water tenders, which are these big water tanks, you know, 2,500 to 3,000 gallon trucks, and they’re going to come and that’s what we have to do to compensate,” the firefighter continued.

Musk wasn’t happy with the answer, stammering, “My understanding is that along the… correct me if I’m wrong, along the… in Malibu along the coast there was no shortage of water. There was a water shortage in the Palisades at one point. Or is that not correct?”

The fireman calmly explained, “We were leaking an amount of water that the system could not handle. It was overwhelming just because these firefighters were using a lot of water.

“Okay,” Musk said, sounding defeated, “sounds good.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom shared a video clip of Musk’s meeting on Sunday, saying the billionaire had been “exposed by the firefighters for his own lies.”

.@ElonMusk exposed by the firemen for his own lies. pic.twitter.com/3Q8xFZaQ3S

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) January 13, 2025

No, Musk hasn’t saved thousands of lives as the LA wildfires continue to rage. But he will no doubt continue to spread misinformation that seeks to serve MAGA’s agenda. And it will almost certainly get much worse after January 20th.