President-elect Donald Trump called for California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) to resign in the wake of the state’s disastrous fires.
“One of the best and most beautiful parts of the United States of America is burning down to the ground,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “It’s ashes and Gavin Newscum should resign. This is all his fault!!!”
In an earlier social media post, Trump blamed Newsom for the state’s fires.
“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 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. 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!”
Newsom’s office claimed that Trump is “conflating two entirely unrelated things: the conveyance of water to Southern California and supply from local storage. And again, there is no such document as the water restoration declaration – this is pure fiction.”
Speaking to CNN’s Anderson Cooper following Trump’s remarks, Newsom said, “One can’t even respond to it. People are literally fleeing. People have lost their lives, kids lost their schools, families completely torn asunder, churches burned down. This guy wanted to politicize it. I have a lot of thoughts and I know what I want to say. I won’t.”
