WASHINGTON, D.C. — As new data reveals the Trump administration has dramatically cut critical wildfire prevention work on federal lands in 2025, major California home insurance companies are abandoning disaster-prone communities while reporting record profits and showering top executives with massive compensation packages. Home insurance premiums have jumped 55% since 2019 in the Golden State.
Trump and his administration’s cuts caused a 34% reduction in wildfire mitigation in California and 38% nationally. Trump’s failure to mitigate wildfire risk comes as the home insurance crisis is reaching a breaking point. This week, California’s last-resort insurer requested a 36% rate increase for families already abandoned by private insurers. The latest California FAIR plan rate increase request comes after private insurers abandoned over a quarter million policyholders from 2020 to 2023, forcing families into the state’s last-resort FAIR Plan, which now seeks a 36% rate increase. Some California ZIP codes now have no private insurers willing to write policies at all.
“The Trump administration has gutted wildfire prevention at the same time insurance companies have abandoned disaster-prone families – families they’ve already milked for billions. Insurers cry poverty while paying CEOs millions and posting record profits. This is a manufactured crisis: insurers chase profit, politicians look the other way, and American families get burned,” said Kyle Herrig, spokesperson for Unlocking America’s Future.
American families are being squeezed from both sides: less federal protection from disasters and insurers who either refuse coverage or charge unaffordable rates. Until politicians and regulators hold insurance companies accountable, the crisis will only deepen.
The property insurance industry made $25 billion in underwriting profits in 2024 and more than $164 billion from investments, yet insurers continue hiking premiums and walking away from families who need coverage most.
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