Alleged Palisades firebug posted anti-Trump screeds, blamed wildfires on climate change

MELBOURNE, Florida — The Florida man accused of sparking the flames that burned swaths of Los Angeles to the ground in the Palisades Fire posted on social media about how global warming causes wildfires.

Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, regularly took to Facebook to share posts about eco-apocalypses, mocking President Trump and his supporters, and pushing people to become vegans.

One article he shared – “Climate Change Will Force a New American Migration,” from ProPublica – even included a thumbnail showing wildfires raging across a California hillside neighborhood.

That 2020 story opened by discussing blazing West Coast temperatures.

It’s eerily – and ironically – similar to the situation Rinderknecht is accused of creating himself on Jan. 1, when he allegedly hiked to the hills above Los Angeles and started a brushfire. Prosecutors allege that blaze was never fully extinguished and six days later it sprang back to life — burning nearly 24,000 acres, kill 12 people, and destroy over 7,000 homes and businesses with damages worth about $150 billion.

Other posts on the alleged firebug’s Facebook included photos of Trump supporters apparently crying after he lost the 2020 election, linking to a Harris-Biden fundraiser page, and more climate-alarmist headlines.

“Senator Kamala Harris Says Meat is Destroying the Planet,” read one article.

“Antarctica’s Ice Shelves Have Lost Millions of Metric Tons of Ice,” read another, from Scientific American.

“A Shift to Plant-Based Diets Would Create 19 Million Jobs in Latin American and the Caribbean,” a third from Forbes read.

And in August 2020, Rinderknecht shared a post from Joe Biden claiming Trump inherited a healthy economy from President Obama – but that Trump’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic “destroyed it.”

Then there was one of the few photos of himself on the page — where he appeared wild-eyed and mouth-open with his face painted like a skull and covered in blood.

Other online activity included creating disturbing AI-generated images showing cities burning with masses of people fleeing the destruction, according prosecutors.

Rinderknecht was living in Los Angeles when he allegedly started the fire, and moved back to his family home in Florida soon after.

He allegedly filmed the blaze he first set, reported it to authorities, and then returned to the site to watch firefighters battle it, according to prosecutors.

Rinderknecht remains held without bail in Orlando.