Danny Trejo Calls Out Kim Kardashian for Her Response to L.A. Wildfires

Danny Trejo isn’t happy with Kim Kardashian’s response to the L.A. wildfires, saying she’s pushing her own agenda in a time where he’d rather see unity. Trejo, 80, told TMZ on Wednesday that it was inappropriate for Kardashian, 44, to be vocal about the plight of incarcerated firefighters.

“Right now, as far as inmates getting paid — pros, cons, whatever — it’s like, right now, Kim, worry about the people that lost everything,” Trejo said, insisting she should focus on the victims of the fires. “You’ve still got everything!”

Last weekend, Kardashian posted a message to her Instagram Story advocating for higher pay for incarcerated firefighters. “The incarcerated firefighters have been paid $1/hour to risk their lives, and this pay has been the same since 1984,” she wrote. “It has never been raised with inflation. It’s never been raised when fires got worse and many died.”

“This year there was an agreement to raise the incarcerated firefighter pay to $5/hour, but it got shot down last minute,” she continued. “I am urging [California Gov. Gavin Newsom] to do what no Governor has done in 4 decades, and raise the incarcerated firefighter pay to a rate the (sic) honors a human being risking their life to save our lives and homes.”

Trejo, who reportedly worked as a firefighter during his time in prison, took issue with Kardashian making the tragedy “political” and rebutted that the inmates fighting the fires are receiving other gains for their service. He explained that the inmates, who volunteer for the first responder positions, can get their sentences reduced, and said that the pay is still more than what most prisoners can earn from other prison jobs.

Politico reports that prisoners who volunteer to work as firefighters earn two extra days off their sentences for every day they serve on a fire crew.

“Guys, I’m sorry, but just put out the damn fire and then we’ll figure out what to do,” Trejo said.

Trejo spent many years in and out of California prisons, starting in his youth. He was arrested multiple times for drug dealing, assault and theft. He eventually turned his life around and earned his high school diploma. The Desperado star’s acting career began in the mid-1980s.

California State Representative Isaac Bryan agrees with Kardashian that incarcerated fire crew members should make more money and is behind a bill that would raise wages. “Incarcerated firefighters are on the front lines saving lives,” Bryan told Politico this week. “They are heroes just like everybody else on the front lines, and they deserve to be paid like it.”

More than 900 incarcerated firefighters had responded to the Southern California wildfires as of Friday, The Marshall Project reports. The fires, which started last week and quickly exploded in size, have killed at least 25 people.