He also asked U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin to give him a list of insurers that \u201cacted swiftly, courageously, and bravely\u201d to fulfill their legal obligation and another list of those that were \u201cparticularly bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
State Farm, California\u2019s largest home insurer, is under investigation<\/a> for how it has handled January 2025 wildfire claims. In a statement responding to the president\u2019s post, it said it has received 13,700 claims, paid out $5.7 billion and expects total payments could reach $7 billion.<\/p>\n \u201cOur leadership position in the California homeowners insurance marketplace means State Farm General Insurance Company \u2014 the State Farm company that provides homeowners insurance in California \u2014 insured more people impacted by this disaster than anyone else,\u201d its statement read.<\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s post had its origins in a Feb. 4 visit <\/a>that Zeldin and Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler made to the Los Angeles area, where they met with L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger and Pacific Palisades fire victims, among others.<\/p>\n The visit was prompted by Trump\u2019s criticism of the slow rebuilding process and by a Trump executive order allowing victims of the Los Angeles wildfires to rebuild without having to deal with \u201cunnecessary, duplicative, or obstructive\u201d permitting requirements.<\/p>\n Aerial image of a neighborhood along Rambla Vista in Malibu taken in December.<\/p>\n (Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n 1 <\/p>\n 2 <\/p>\n 1. A view of destroyed beachfront properties remaining construction-free after the Palisades fire destroyed them last year in Malibu. 2. Aerial image of the remnants of an oceanfront neighborhood in Malibu taken in December after the massive Palisades fire destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses last year. (Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n At the time of the order, Bass dismissed it as a \u201cmeaningless political stunt,\u201d<\/a> saying the president has no authority over local permitting but could assist by speeding up Federal Emergency Management Agency funding.<\/p>\n The American Property Casualty Insurance Assn. industry trade group, in its response to Trump\u2019s post, continued to point fingers at local government. It noted the fires were the third-worst natural disaster in American history in terms of insured losses, at $40 billion.<\/p>\n \u201cPermitting can be a frustrating process, and it can always be improved,\u201d it said in a statement. \u201cLos Angeles has been approving permits three times faster than it was before the fire. However, permit issuance continues to lag.\u201d<\/p>\n Barger, whose district includes the Eaton fire zone in and around Altadena, said this week that she defended the local permitting process to Zeldin. But said she also pointed out complaints about how insurers, and State Farm in particular, have handled claims.<\/p>\n \u201cMany people feel that the insurance industry has let them down, and the number one company that we hear about is State Farm,\u201d she said. \u201cObviously, Administrator Zeldin met with the president and outlined what I told him.\u201d <\/p>\n Bass, who also spoke on the phone with Trump last month, issued a statement saying she \u201crecently requested that the President intervene with the insurance companies to ensure they pay claims so that survivors can afford to rebuild.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI want to thank President Trump and EPA Administrator Zeldin for taking action and working alongside us to help survivors get the support they need and deserve,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n A White House official said Friday that the EPA was working to produce the list of insurers \u201cas quickly as possible for the president\u201d and the \u201cbest way for insurance companies to help is to immediately pay out what they owe so victims can rebuild their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n Construction crews rebuild homes that were destroyed in the Eaton fire in Altadena on March 20.<\/p>\n (Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n \u201cAdministrator Zeldin, on behalf of the president, is going to hold insurance companies accountable to the great people of California,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n The federal government has played a large role in the recovery, including leading the debris cleanup<\/a> and, as of February, approving 12,600 Small Business Administration loans to fire victims totaling $3.2 billion.<\/p>\n However, a 1945 federal law, the McCarran-Ferguson Act,<\/a> delegates authority to regulate the insurance industry primarily to individual states.<\/p>\n Joy Chen, executive director of Eaton Fire Survivor\u2019s Network<\/a>, which represents thousands of fire victims across Los Angeles, said her group believes the federal government has a larger role to play.<\/p>\n \u201cPresident Trump has the opportunity to restore accountability to this broken system. Federal agencies have the tools to act,\u201d said Chen, who has been sharply critical of State Farm\u2019s claims practices and how California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara has handled complaints against the company.<\/p>\n She specifically called for the Federal Trade Commission to examine \u201cdeceptive sales practices\u201d that have left Americans underinsured and for the Department of Justice to investigate \u201cindustrywide claims practices that delay, deny or underpay payments owed to policyholders.\u201d<\/p>\n Lara has defended his treatment of the company, noting regulators opened a probe of State Farm\u2019s claims practices last year.<\/p>\n Martin Grace, a University of Iowa business professor and expert on insurance regulation, said that aside from the \u201cbully pulpit\u201d Trump exercised in his social media post, the federal government\u2019s hands are largely tied.<\/p>\n \u201cHe can browbeat people, and Trump\u2019s good at that. And I think the federal government, at one level, only has that. Now, Congress and the president together could say, \u2018Listen, we don\u2019t like what the states are allowing insurers to do, and we\u2019re going to change the regulatory system,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Grace noted that there was an insurance industry solvency crisis in the 1970s and 1980s that led to a 1990 Congressional report<\/a> and federal pressure for improved state-level regulation, which was undertaken.<\/p>\n \u201cCongress basically said, \u2018Get your act together, or we\u2019re going to take [regulation] back.\u2019\u201d And so the states got together and did a much better job on that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Los Angeles attorney Richard Giller, who represents plaintiffs in lawsuits against insurers, said that the federal government could still take steps to improve the market.<\/p>\n![\"Aerial](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775363184_178_.jpeg\")
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