NEWSActor Danny Trejo Slams Kim Kardashian for Making L.A. Wildfires 'Political' Following Her Post About Underpaid Incarcerated Firefighters: Watch
Danny Trejo was previously an incarcerated firefighter before his acting career took off.
Danny Trejo doesn’t support Kim Kardashian’s latest “cause.”
On Wednesday, January 15, the Machete actor, 80, dissed the reality TV star, 44, for making the L.A. wildfires “political” after she posted about incarcerated firefighters’ low wages.
“Right now, as far as inmates getting paid,” Trejo — who was once a former incarcerated firefighter himself — began. “Kim, worry about the people that lost everything. You still got everything, OK? So let’s worry about all the people that are walking around with absolutely nothing but the clothes on their back.”
The Good, the Bad, and the Dead alum then discussed his experience fighting flames in Northern California when he was “in the joint.”
Trejo claimed Kardashian was advocating for something that would hardly help first responders.
“All the people in jail, and you’re talking to a convict, lady, all the people in jail, they’re fine,” the movie star — who was in prison for 11 years for drug dealing, armed robbery and more — insisted.
Danny Trejo insisted the incarcerated firefighters are 'fine' compared to those left with nothing.
Trejo complained that “everybody needs a cause,” including Kardashian. However, he admitted the SKIMS founder likely didn't mean to cause any drama from her upload.
The Minions: The Rise of Gru voice actor noted that the incarcerated firefighters get other benefits from volunteering, such as time knocked off their sentence. He added that most of the funds the criminals are paid go to restitution rather than directly to them.
Trejo assured the reduction of the sentence is the main draw for most firefighters and that Kardashian’s activism would be better used to help people who “lost everything” in the fires.
“They committed a [crime],” he stated of the firefighters. “I hate saying this — I was a criminal!”
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'I see them as heroes,' Kim Kardashian said about the incarcerated firefighters while urging the government to pay them more.
Trejo’s advice for Kardashian came after she shared a post demanding the incarcerated firefighters get paid more on Saturday, January 11.
The mother-of-four — who shares kids North, 11, Saint, 9, Chicago, 7, and Psalm, 5, with ex Kanye West— began by noting, "There are hundreds of incarcerated firefighters, risking their lives to save us,” while arguing they do not get compensated accordingly.
"They get paid almost nothing, risk their lives, some have died, to prove to the community that they have changed and are now first responders," she penned. "I see them as heroes."
“It has never been raised with inflation. It’s never been raised when fires got worse and many died,” she explained, adding that one proposed pay raise “got shot down last minute.”
Danny Trejo said the incarcerated firefighters are more interested in the benefit of a shorter sentence if they volunteer to fight the fires.
The first responders are currently raking in $1 per hour — a rate she said has been the same since 1984.
“I am urging @cagovernor [Gavin Newsom] to do what no Governor has done in 4 decades and raise the incarcerated firefighter pay to a rate [that] honors a human being risking their life to save our lives and homes,” she demanded.
TMZ interviewed Trejo.
