President Donald Trump went off the rails when asked about California wildfires during his first full day in office. He claims city officials are diverting "limitless" water to the ocean through a "massive valve."
Trump, in a Jan. 8 Truth Social post, blamed Newsom’s management for the water issues, and said Newsom had refused to allow “beautiful, clean, fresh water to flow into California.”
“Governor Gavin (Newsom) 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,” Trump said. “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.”
Trump’s posts seemed to blame the water constraints on statewide water management plans that capture rain and snow as it flows from Northern California. But experts said those plans would not have affected the fire response.
Southern California has plenty of water stored, said Mark Gold, the water scarcity solutions director at the Natural Resources Defense Council and a Southern California Metropolitan Water District board member.
This follows on from previous posts https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/fact-checking-misinformation-about-the-los-angeles-wildfires-and-california-water-policy