Instagram posts – Claims California Gov. Gavin Newsom thwarted Elon Musk’s help amid fires are unfounded

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Californian Elon Musk sparred over the state’s response to recent wildfires in greater Los Angeles, but some social media posts claim the Democratic governor put politics over people’s best interests. 

“Gavin Newsom directed the removal of Elon Musk from the command post and ordered Cal Fire firefighters to return donated Starlinks,” a Jan. 15 Instagram post said over the video of a narrator echoing the same claim. Both the text and narrator referred to the Starlink satellite internet terminals Musk dispatched to help with the wildfire response. 

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Musk’s representatives didn’t immediately respond to PolitiFact’s questions about the post. Newsom’s office also didn’t comment, but on X, the governor responded to a similar accusation: that he had “confiscated Starlink modems from firefighters amid wifi outage during LA wildfires.” 

“Nope,” Newsom said in a Jan. 14 post. “I did not confiscate Starlink modems. CalFire did not tell other agencies not to use these devices.”

Cal Fire — the California Department of Forestry and Protection — didn’t take any Starlink internet terminals, but not at Newsom’s direction, according to Thomas Shoots, a Cal Fire spokesperson for the Palisades Fire. 

“Gavin Newsom did not direct the removal of Elon Musk from the incident command post, nor did he order Cal Fire employees to return Starlink devices,” Shoots said in a statement to PolitiFact. “Starlinks couldn’t be accepted due to our department policy prohibiting the acceptance of gifts.”

Other firefighters were able to use the satellite internet technology. Heidi Oliva, a County of Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson, told PolitiFact  the agency “received Starlink units.”

We rate claims Newsom directed the removal of Musk from a fire command post and ordered Cal Fire firefighters to return donated Starlink units False.