Danny Trejo Criticizes Kim Kardashian for Convict Firefighter Comments

Kim Kardashian recently called for incarcerated firefighters battling the Los Angeles wildfires to be paid higher than $1 per hour, but former convict Danny Trejo doesn't think now is the time to fight for such a cause.

"Right now, as far as inmates getting paid... Kim, worry about the people that lost everything, you still got everything," Trejo told TMZ. "So let's worry about all the people that are walking around with absolutely nothing but the clothes on their back. And you're talking to a convict, lady! I mean, all the people in jail, they're fine, all right? I don't believe it, everybody needs, like, a cause. They committed a—God, I hate saying this, I was a criminal! Guys, I'm sorry, just put out the damn fire and then we'll figure out what to do."

Trejo, now 80, spent time in and out of prisons in California throughout the '60s through to the early '70s and worked as a firefighter when he was incarcerated. The fires in Los Angeles have left thousands of buildings decimated, with incarcerated firefighters among the teams working to put them out amid harsh winds.

As Kim Kardashian recently pointed out in posts on Instagram, incarcerated firefighters only make $1 an hour. She has actively called for the firefighters to have their pay increased and have time shaved off their respective sentences for risking their lives.

“On all 5 fires in Los Angeles, there are hundreds of incarcerated firefighters, risking their lives to save us," Kardashian wrote. "They are on the Palisades fire and Eaton fire in Pasadena working 24 hour shifts. 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. I see them as heroes."

Popular Twitch streamer Hasan Piker also recently shone a light on the inmate firefighters responding to the situation in Los Angeles, speaking with them directly during a broadcast.

“It’s way better because if I was in the prison yard, I’m seeing guys get stabbed, get beat up, the cops treat us like shit, but here we get better treatment,” one prisoner told Piker. “They talk to us like humans. We got a job. We’re underpaid, but we have a job. And then the community shows us all kinds of love. We never received that growing up.”