Amid the escalating wildfire crisis in Southern California, President-elect Donald Trump took to Truth Social to voice his criticisms of state leadership, specifically targeting California Governor Gavin Newsom. Trump’s posts on the social media platform accused Newsom of giving precedence to environmental policies at the expense of public safety. He also claimed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was ill-equipped to deal with the fires due to a lack of funds. CBS News Confirmed undertook a fact-checking exercise on these claims. Here’s what they discovered.
Newsom rejected Trump’s accusation regarding a “water restoration declaration”. Trump argued that Newsom refused to sign this supposed declaration, which he claimed would have redirected large volumes of water to the areas currently ablaze. He alleged that Newsom prioritized the protection of a type of small fish, the smelt, over the welfare of Californians. In response, Newsom’s office dismissed the water restoration declaration as a fabrication.
Trump seemed to be referring to his own administration’s 2019 proposal to reallocate water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to the agricultural regions of Central Valley and urban areas in Southern California. This proposed reallocation was successfully contested in court by California officials and environmentalists who maintained that the new rules would pose a threat to wildlife in the Delta, including the smelt fish.
In December, the Biden administration, working in collaboration with Governor Newsom, endorsed fresh regulations that they maintain will allow for an increased extraction of water from the Delta to Southern California, while still safeguarding local wildlife.
Mark Gold, an official who assists in managing Southern California’s water supply, dismissed Trump’s assertion that his suggested changes could have alleviated the wildfire situation. Gold, who holds the position of water scarcity director for the Natural Resources Defense Council and is a member of the Metropolitan Water District Board, stated that the issues at hand were unrelated to the region’s water storage capacity.
In relation to Trump’s comments about a lack of water in fire hydrants, Los Angeles city officials have come under fire after some hydrants ran dry in specific areas of Pacific Palisades. This was due to the city’s three 1-million-gallon water tanks being drained by 3 a.m. during firefighting efforts, leading to reduced water pressure at higher elevations.
In a separate social media post, Trump criticized President Biden, alleging that his administration had left FEMA without funds. However, it was reported that the Disaster Relief Fund, managed by FEMA, had approximately $27 billion after a $29 billion infusion from a bill signed by Biden in December.
The White House responded by stating that FEMA had approved Fire Management Assistance Grants to aid California in covering firefighting costs.
