President Trump visited fire-ravaged California recently. During his trip, he suggested that raking could prevent forest fires [1]. Trump said that he spoke to the president of Finland. He claimed that President Sauli Niinisto told him the in Finland they prevent forest fires by “raking” preemptively. Of course, President Niinisto says he said no such thing.
Speaking to reporters in California Trump said, “You look at other countries where they do it differently and it’s a whole different story.” He continued, “I was with the president of Finland and he said, ‘We’re a forest nation.’ He called it a forest nation. And they spend a lot of time on raking and cleaning and doing things. And they don’t have any problem. And when it is, it’s a very small problem.”
Trump went on saying, “I was watching the firemen the other day, and they were raking areas. They were raking areas where the fire was right over there.” He continued, “They’re raking trees, little trees like this that are nut trees, little bushes, that you could see are totally dry. Weeds. And they’re raking them, they’re on fire. That should have been all raked out.”
The Forestry Director of the Finnish Forest Association, Heikki Savolainen said that Trump must be confusing “raking” with “thinning.” Thinning is a process of selectively removing trees to guard against forest fires.
Well, Finland is mocking Trump on Twitter, and it’s amazing:
Raking in Finland. #haravointi [2] #RakeNews [3] #RakeAmericaGreatAgain [4] #raking [5] pic.twitter.com/wU76pwTLEe [6]
— Pauliina Ståhlberg (@PStahlberg) November 19, 2018 [7]
Woke this Sunday morning to #RakeTheForest [8] to prevent #CaliforniaFires [9] from spreading here in Finland #RakeNews [3] #forestnation [10] pic.twitter.com/6sS4gz6kyJ [11]
— Johanna Junttila (@JunttilaJohanna) November 18, 2018 [12]
Just this afternoon I was busy meeting my raking quota. #RakeNews [3] #Finland [13] #Haravointi [14] pic.twitter.com/HLaHU0bimO [15]
— Tarja van Veldhoven (@tarjuccia) November 19, 2018 [16]
Hello @realDonaldTrump [17] and #American [18] people! Recently I took this photo of a Finnish forrest. Floor is indeed beautiful and very nice, very beautiful floor. Very much raking. It’s raking beautiful! #Finland [13] #Forest [19] #Raking [20] #Rakenews [21] #MakeAmericaRakeAgain [22] pic.twitter.com/PfSh0xG7jv [23]
— Julius Jansson (@julius_jansson) November 18, 2018 [24]
Not on my watch!#Rakenews [21] pic.twitter.com/SOt8LHQZjt [25]
— Arto Aspfors (@aspfors) November 18, 2018 [26]
Off to perform my civic duty! #rakenews [27] #Finland [13] ???????? pic.twitter.com/oRoZUZgkf1 [28]
— Meira Pappi (@meirapap) November 18, 2018 [29]
Greetings from #Finland [13]! Just taking a break from raking leaves and having a lunch. We have the best rakes in the world! #RakeAmericaGreatAgain [4] #RakeTheForest [8] #Trump [30] #SundayFunday [31] #SundayMorning [32] #rakenews [27] #CaliforniaWildFires [33] #ClimateChange [34] #haravointi [2] #metsänhoito [35] #CampFire [36] pic.twitter.com/gsM8CbLdSi [37]
— Kristiina Vahvaselkä (@TravelWithXtina) November 18, 2018 [38]