Donald Trump/claims/water restoration declaration

Donald Trump's claims about a "water restoration declaration" in California

Claims

Trump has repeatedly claimed that California Governor Gavin Newsom (to whom he referred as "Gavin Newscum") refused to sign a "water restoration declaration" that was submitted to him.

Regarding this declaration, he has also claimed that:

• This legislation would have "that would have allowed millions of gallons of water" per day into California, including the parts being ravaged by fire.
• Gavin refused because he wanted to protect smelt habitats.
• ...by giving them less water.
• His efforts to protect this fish didn't work.

Reality

• There was no such declaration.
• truth-nugget: Newsom did mount a legal challenge to a Trump plan to deliver more water from Northern California to farmers in the state's Central Valley agricultural hub, saying he (Newsom) was seeking “to protect highly imperiled fish species close to extinction” in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in the north. Trump's presidential transition team agreed on 2025-01-06 (Thursday) that this is what Trump was referring to. However, this has nothing to do with the wildfires or availability of water for firefighting.

News

News

• 2025/01/11 15:06 UTC [L..T] Fact check: As wildfires rage, Trump lashes out with false claims about FEMA and California water policy «Trump's claim is false. Though FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund was depleted last year by a series of major disasters, Biden signed a bill in December that replenished the fund. "The current balance of the Disaster Relief Fund is approximately $27 billion," FEMA told CNN in an email on Wednesday. That sum may well prove inadequate to meet the needs created by every disaster that ends up happening this year, but it’s not "no money."»
• 2025/01/08 18:57 UTC [L..T] @GovPressOffice/status/1877067195043221875 [full text] «There is no such document as the water restoration declaration – that is pure fiction. / The Governor is focused on protecting people, not playing politics, and making sure firefighters have all the resources they need.»
• 2025/01/08 11:40 UTC [L..T] @realDonaldTrump/posts/113793724958051185 [full text] «Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way. He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn't work!), but didn’t care about the people of California. Now the ultimate price is being paid. I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is the blame for this. On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes. A true disaster!»