Donald Trump/claims/CA wildfires

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2025-01-08 Sat

Claims

At 11:40, Trump claimed that:

  • CA Governor Gavin Newsom refused to sign a "water restoration declaration" that was submitted to him.
  • This legislation would have "that would have allowed millions of gallons of water" per day into California, including the parts being ravaged by fire.
  • He refused because he wanted to protect smelt habitats.
  • ...by giving them less water.
  • His efforts to protect this fish didn't work.
  • The water deficit is so severe that there is "no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes."

At 14:25, Trump reiterated the fire hydrants claim, and added a claim that there is "no money in FEMA".

Reality

  • FEMA is adequately funded for now, due in part to Biden's efforts; see FEMA funding.

2025-01-28 Fri

Claims

Trump claimed that:

  • the US military has "turned on the water" to California
  • ...giving it access to a supply "flowing abundantly from the Pacific Northwest, and beyond"...
  • ... presumably via some pipeline which he believes exists and had been turned off.

In that same post, he also implies that :

  • The fact of this water-supply having been turned off is what created California's environmental crisis.
  • Having restored the supply has ended that crisis.
  • The crisis was fake because the water could have been turned back on at any time.
  • The water was turned off as a political stunt by environmentalists.

He never mentions the connection, but anyone who has been following the news might have assumed that the military was acting on his orders of 4 days earlier and that therefore Trump essentially put out the wildfires and fixed a politically-engineered environmental crisis with a stroke of the pen.

The claim was reiterated in a White House press briefing on January 28 (archive).

Reality

  • There is no such pipeline.
  • No water supply to California was ever "turned off".
  • The military did not "restore water" to California.
  • The military did not even enter California. (CA DWR)
  • All of the claims in his post are therefore completely false and ridiculous.

Follow-up

  • 2025-01-28
    • 06:35 (@X-Twitter): The post was reshared approvingly in a pinned post by user @AwakenedOutlaw, who amplified a bit on the "fake crisis" theme by stating that this action is "exposing the grand deception of drought".
    • 09:19 (@X-Twitter): The Department of Governmental Efficiency posted congratulations to the administration and the DOI «for more than doubling the Federally pumped water flowing toward Southern California in < 72 hours.»

News

News