President-elect Donald Trump has reignited a long-standing feud with Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) as California grapples with the costliest wildfire in history.
Government officials estimated the Los Angeles fires would cause more than $50 billion in total damages, with Republicans saying California’s water management policies prevented emergency responders from containing the blaze.
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At its heart, Trump’s criticism centers on Newsom’s general management of state resources, specifically conservational rules aimed at protecting the delta smelt, an endangered, 3-inch fish native to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
“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,” the president-elect wrote Wednesday on Truth Social. “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.”
“One of the best and most beautiful parts of the United States of America is burning down to the ground,” Trump added in a second post. “It’s ashes, and Gavin Newscum should resign. This is all his fault!!!”
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Newsom’s office denied Trump’s claims, saying they were “pure fiction.”
“There is no such document as the water restoration declaration — that is pure fiction,” Izzy Gardon, Newsom’s communications director, said in a statement. “The governor is focused on protecting people, not playing politics, and making sure firefighters have all the resources they need.”
This isn’t the first time Trump used the smelt as an avenue to attack California’s Democratic leadership. He began targeting California’s smelt protections during his 2016 campaign in an apparent bid to woo Republican voters. Those attacks mirrored similar overtures made by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) during his 2016 campaign and former Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) during her vice presidential bid in 2008.
Trump also signed a presidential memorandum aimed at skirting California’s environmental protections to funnel water toward the state’s farmers, which produce roughly 40% of the nation’s agricultural products. Newsom went on to challenge that direction in the courts.
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A Sacramento County court eventually backed Newsom’s arguments in the spring of last year, stating the State Water Resources Control Board’s plans to maintain smelt populations.
The matter even surfaced on the 2024 campaign trail. In September, Trump said at a Los Angeles press conference that if Newsom didn’t loosen regulations capping the amount of water that can be pumped out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, he would cut federal aid to help California tackle wildfires.
“Gavin Newscum is gonna sign those papers, and if he doesn’t sign those papers, we won’t give him money to put out his fires,” he said at the time. “If we don’t give him money to put out his fires, he’s got problems.”
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California officials maintain that unusually high winds are to blame for the severity of this week’s fires, not the state’s water rules. However, emergency responders temporarily exhausted their water supply while fighting the blaze earlier this week.
“A firefight with multiple fire hydrants drawing water from the system for several hours is unsustainable. This is a known fact,” Los Angeles County Public Works Director Mark Pestrella said at a press conference Wednesday. “I would ask that you turn off your water and turn off your gas, both things, before you leave the residence so that we can continue to have that water supply for the hydrant system.”
