'California is going to hell': Trump attacks California, New York, Illinois in morning tweets

Donald Trump has fired off a barrage of typically outrageous tweets to start the week.  

Just after 8.30am EST on Monday, Mr Trump issued a trio of tweets disparaging states run by the Democratic Party.  

In the first, Mr Trump tweeted that "California is going to hell".  

Republicans frequently criticise the liberal government under California Governor Gavin Newsom, and the president's latest jab is likely a reference to the destructive wildfires the state has battled throughout the summer.  

As of early October, nearly four per cent of the state's land has been torched by wildfires. The blazes have killed 31 people.  

Mr Trump blamed California's forest management for the fires.  

“I see again the forest fires are starting," he said. "They’re starting again in California. I said, you gotta clean your floors, you gotta clean your forests — there are many, many years of leaves and broken trees and they’re like, like, so flammable, you touch them and it goes up."

Wildfires are typically annual events in the state, and their intensity has increased in recent years due to climate change.  

According to the president, California isn't the only doomed state destined for hell; New York, apparently, is already there.  

"New York has gone to hell. Vote Trump!" he tweeted.  

Mr Trump, who gained his fame through self promotion as a New York real estate tycoon, has locked horns with the state's Democratic governor, Andrew Cuomo, since the coronavirus pandemic began in the US in March. He claimed- without evidence - in August that people were "fleeing New York" because of Mayor Bill de Blasio and Mr Cuomo's leadership.  

Mr Trump named New York City as one of his "anarchist jurisdictions" and threatened to cut the city off from federal funding.  

Mr Cuomo did not react well to the threat, and said Mr Trump "can't have enough bodyguards to walk through New York City. Forget bodyguards, he better have an army if he thinks he's going to walk down the streets in New York."  

The final stop on Mr Trump's tour of doomed American locations was Illinois.  

"Illinois has no place to go. Sad, isn't it? Vote Trump!" he tweeted.  

It was not immediately clear why Illinois could not join California and New York in hell.  

It is likely that Mr Trump's issues with Illinois are not with the state as much as with Chicago.  

Chicago has long served as a way for Republicans to wave off liberal demands for both gun control and racial justice reforms in law enforcement. They point to the city's strict gun laws and high rates of violent crime as evidence that gun control does not work, and suggested in the past that Chicago's "black on black" crime is of more concern than systemic racism in law enforcement agencies.  

In a letter Mr Trump sent Illinois Governor JB Pritzker in June, he wrote at length about the gun crime in Chicago and insinuated the governor's failure to lead effectively was exacerbating the city's problems. Mr Trump then wrote that he would be willing to work with Mr Pritzker to solve the city's problems if he was willing to "put partisanship aside".  

Mr Trump's perplexing idea for fixing rampant violence in Chicago was to cut taxes and deregulate businesses.  

"If you are willing to put partisanship aside, we can revitalise distressed neighborhoods in Chicago, together.  But to succeed, you must establish law and order.  The combination of crime, high State and local taxes, and onerous State and local government regulations have caused thousands of Illinoisans to flee to other States," Mr Trump wrote.