Trump rips LA Mayor Karen Bass at wildfire briefing: ‘You have emergency powers, just like I do’

President Trump tangled with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass Friday after touring wildfire damage in America’s second-largest city — demanding she use her “emergency powers” and allow residents to return to their homes to rebuild.

Trump, 78, championed resident complaints about not being allowed to access their properties to clear debris and begin reconstruction while blaming local policies for causing the catastrophe estimated to cost $250 billion.

“I just think you have to allow the people to go on their site and start the process tonight,” Trump told the Democratic mayor, who was seated next to him during a roundtable discussion that included most of the area’s congressional delegation.

“And we will,” Bass claimed, despite contradicting herself minutes later by offering a one-week timeframe for residents to be allowed to visit the charred remains of their homes.

Bass protested that “we want people to be safe” — as residents shouted protests from across the room.

“I watched hundreds of people standing in front of their lots, and they’re not allowed to go in,” the president retorted.

“It’s all burned. It’s gone, it’s done. Nothing’s going to happen… The people are all over the place. They’re standing and they say… ‘We’re trying to get a permit’, and the permit is going to take them, everybody said, 18 months,” Trump said.

“We can’t even see our homes right now!” a local woman shouted.

“You have emergency powers, just like I do, and I’m exercising my emergency powers. You have to exercise them also,” Trump scolded Bass.

“I did exercise them,” she insisted. “If individuals want to clear out their property, they can.”

When another resident shouted, she said, “You will be able to go back soon. We think within a week.”

“A week is actually a long time, the way I look at it,” Trump reprimanded the mayor, insisting “they are safe.”

The newly inaugurated president, who took office Monday, said that he will try to hasten rebuilding by waiving any federal permits and that he would pressure California officials to do the same.

“We’re going to essentially waive all federal permits,” Trump said. “I’m going to override the Coastal Commission, I’m not going to let them get away with their antics.”

The president blamed Democrats, including those present, for causing the crisis by failing to clear parched vegetation, inadequately supplying water to the area — allowing fire hydrants to run dry — and creating a situation where many fire insurance providers pulled out of the region last year.

Trump said he would be mandating the water be allowed to flow from northern California to the Los Angeles area — referring to his frequent barbs at Gov. Gavin Newsom for not doing so, though Trump didn’t use his name — and demanded better management of dry brush.

The governor met Trump on the tarmac when he arrived in Los Angeles, but did not join Trump’s subsequent meetings with residents, firefighters and local leaders.

“I’m signing an executive order to open up the pumps and valves in the north. We want to get that water pouring down here as quickly as possible to let hundreds of millions of gallons of water flow down into Southern California,” Trump said.

“I tell you who does like it is the fire department… I really strongly recommended this seven years ago. And I think I’m going to just do it.”

He added: “You have so much water. Use it and be happy about it.”

Few of the Democratic officials directly challenged the commander in chief — with the exception of Bass and Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), who urged Trump not to withhold funds over state voting policy, which he said earlier Friday would be a “condition” of aid.

Trump, meanwhile, blasted Democrats including Sherman for the lack of fire insurance by many Los Angeles residents, saying he was “not a fan” of insurers but that “you lost your insurance companies six months ago because the state wouldn’t give them what they had to have.”

“People that think like you made it so impossible,” Trump told Sherman.

At another point, Trump ripped former President Joe Biden, telling Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) — who implored him to “remember the people in Altadena and Pasadena” — that “this took place during the life of another president — not me — and but I’m going to be the president that’s going to help you fix it. Because he would not have been able to help you fix it.”

Biden, 82, is vacationing at a billionaire’s ranch in nearby Santa Ynez.

Trump focused much of his remarks to deriding environmental concerns that he said could hamper the reconstruction process and the flow of water.

“They use the environment to make themselves feel good, and they’re destroying our country. And you’ve got to at some point, you’ve got to put your foot down,” he said.

“They talk about the delta smelt, which is a fish that’s this big, but it really doesn’t have to be protected because it’s in other areas. It’s in numerous other areas. So it doesn’t have to be protected. The people of California have to be protected,” Trump said to applause from Republicans present.

“Some environmental groups like the trees to just melt into the ground, but when they do melt into the ground, they become an inferno.”

Trump said he was putting his first-term ambassador to Germany Ric Grenell in charge of federal efforts to recover from the wildfires.

During the roundtable, the president did not say he would stipulate voting-law changes in return for federal funds while addressing the California crowd — despite saying he would do so during his visit to North Carolina earlier in the day.

“We’re going to have a big celebration soon,” Trump said. “We’re going to come back, and we’ll come back as much as you need. And we’re going to turn it around and we’re going to open the coffers, you know America wants this to be taken care of.”

Alluding to his inaugural speech, Trump said, “There can be no golden age without the Golden State.”