President-elect Donald Trump took to his platform, Truth Social, on Wednesday to sound off about the wildfires raging in Southern California. In his posts, Trump made a series of claims about California Gov. Gavin Newsom, the state's resources and water. Here is a look at his first post on Wednesday: Claim: "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."This is false. State officials along with Republican sources in California's legislature confirmed to sister station KCRA on Wednesday that there was never a "water restoration declaration" placed in front of Newsom. Since Newsom has been in office, there has not been legislation that would do what Trump is describing. In a statement, Newsom's spokesman Izzy Gardon said, "There is no such document as the water restoration declaration 鈥� that is pure fiction. The Governor is focused on protecting people, not playing politics, and making sure firefighters have all the resources they need." Claim: "He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn鈥檛 work!)"This is mostly true. It's not exactly clear what the President-elect is referring to here, but the governor supports the controversial Delta conveyance project, which aims to protect smelt habitats in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. It's not clear if Trump is referring to the plan his administration proposed toward the end of his first term, which would have exported more water from Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to farmers and cities. According to CalMatters, state officials and environmentalists objected that the proposal would have increased the chances that salmon, smelt and steelhead would go extinct. It's also possible Trump is referring to the State Water Project, which is California's massive water storage and delivery strategy made up of various water systems. But state and federal officials recently decided to curtail additional water flows that were meant to protect the endangered fish, according to the LA Times. Claim: "On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes."This is somewhat true. Several news outlets in the Los Angeles area have reported that because of the extreme demand, fire hydrants ran dry in some areas and water storage tanks did go dry in the Palisades area, and local officials expressed serious concern over this.According to NBC LA, Janisse Quinones, CEO and Chief Engineer for LA Department of Water and Power, said three large water tanks, about 1 million gallons each, were impacted."We ran out of water, and the first tank at about 4:45 p.m. yesterday," Quinones said. "We ran out of water on the second tank about 8:30 p.m., and the third tank about 3 a.m. this morning."In terms of actual water supply, Southern California is doing well according to officials. CalMatters reported water suppliers have said because of back-to-back years of plenty of precipitation, their reservoirs and groundwater basins are brimming.Trump's assertion the state lacks firefighting planes is false. California has the largest civil aerial firefighting fleet in the world. The aircraft were grounded Tuesday night because of extreme wind.
President-elect Donald Trump took to his platform, Truth Social, on Wednesday to sound off about the wildfires raging in Southern California.
In his posts, Trump made a series of claims about California Gov. Gavin Newsom, the state's resources and water.
Here is a look at his first post on Wednesday:
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Claim: "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."
This is false. State officials along with Republican sources in California's legislature confirmed to sister station KCRA on Wednesday that there was never a "water restoration declaration" placed in front of Newsom. Since Newsom has been in office, there has not been legislation that would do what Trump is describing.
In a statement, Newsom's spokesman Izzy Gardon said, "There is no such document as the water restoration declaration 鈥� that is pure fiction. The Governor is focused on protecting people, not playing politics, and making sure firefighters have all the resources they need."
Claim: "He [Newsom] wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn鈥檛 work!)"
This is mostly true. It's not exactly clear what the President-elect is referring to here, but the governor supports the controversial , which aims to protect smelt habitats in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
, which would have exported more water from Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to farmers and cities. , state officials and environmentalists objected that the proposal would have increased the chances that salmon, smelt and steelhead would go extinct.
It's also possible Trump is referring to the State Water Project, which is California's massive water storage and delivery strategy made up of various water systems. But state and federal officials recently decided to curtail additional water flows that were meant to protect the endangered fish, .
Claim: "On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes."
This is somewhat true. Several news outlets in the Los Angeles area have reported that because of the extreme demand, , and local officials expressed serious concern over this.
Janisse Quinones, CEO and Chief Engineer for LA Department of Water and Power, said three large water tanks, about 1 million gallons each, were impacted.
"We ran out of water, and the first tank at about 4:45 p.m. yesterday," Quinones said. "We ran out of water on the second tank about 8:30 p.m., and the third tank about 3 a.m. this morning."
In terms of actual water supply, Southern California is doing well according to officials. their reservoirs and groundwater basins are brimming.
Trump's assertion the state lacks firefighting planes is false. . The aircraft were grounded Tuesday night because of extreme wind.
