President-elect Donald Trump has blamed California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) for the state’s devastating fires, stating that if he had signed a key declaration, more water would flow into areas affected by the flames.
“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,” Trump wrote 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. 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!”
During his first term in office, Trump called upon Newsom to “take care of the floors” of forests.
“There’s been a lot of study going on over the last little while, and I will say I think you’re gonna have—hopefully this is going to be the last of these because this was a really, really bad one,” Trump said at the time. “And I know that Gavin’s committed, we’re all committed, I’m committed to make sure that all of this is cleaned out and protected. You gotta take care of the floors. You know, the floors of the forests, very important.”
The fire has destroyed more than 1,000 homes and left two people dead, according to the Los Angeles Times.
