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Trump Suggests Possible Withholding of Federal Aid to California Due to Water Policy Disputes


“I don’t believe we should provide any assistance to California until they allow water to flow freely,” he remarked.

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump indicated that he might withhold federal assistance to California due to a series of severe wildfires, unless the state amends its water policies.

During an interview on Fox News Channel with Sean Hannity, he reiterated that the state’s fish conservation initiatives in Northern California are affecting water availability, particularly in light of the wildfires that began earlier this month. Trump also criticized Gov. Gavin Newsom for the slow response in controlling the fires.

“I don’t believe we should give California anything until they allow water to flow freely,” he stated.

In the same interview, Trump confirmed plans to visit Los Angeles on Friday after his trip to North Carolina, which was hit hard by Hurricane Helene last fall. However, he mentioned he was uncertain if he would meet with Newsom.

“Look, Gavin has one option: he can release water from the north. There are huge amounts of rainwater and mountain water that flow down as the snow melts. There’s an abundance of water,” Trump commented, referring to Newsom, a Democrat.

On Monday, Trump signed an executive order to direct federal agencies to “route more water” from Northern California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to other areas of the state amid the wildfires, claiming it was a move to end “radical environmentalism” prioritizing fish over human needs.

The recent catastrophic wildfires in Southern California highlight the urgent need for the state to have a dependable water supply and effective vegetation management to alleviate the water shortages currently being faced, and the White House emphasized the necessity of reimplementing such plans immediately.

At a press conference the previous day, Trump claimed that “Los Angeles has a vast supply of water at its disposal.”

“All they need to do is open the valve,” he added.

Earlier in January, Newsom sent a letter to Trump requesting him to assess the damage from the fires in Los Angeles personally and to engage with first responders. In an interview on NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” the governor contested Trump’s claims regarding fish and water shortages in Los Angeles.

According to Newsom, Trump is “inexplicably linking the delta smelt to the fires, which is both erroneous and inexcusable.”

“This is also unfathomable to anyone who understands the state’s water policies,” Newsom concluded.

On January 10, then-President Joe Biden mentioned at an event that local utility services deliberately turned off power in Los Angeles, which led to water shortages amid the wildfires.

“From discussions with the governor, I understand there are concerns regarding a water shortage,” Biden stated in a briefing. “The fact is the utilities understandably shut down power because they feared that the lines carrying electricity would be blown down and ignite further fires.

“As a result, that cut off the capacity to pump the water. That’s what caused the shortage in the hydrants.”

During the Hannity interview, Trump indicated that there may be significant alterations to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as he prefers individual states to manage their disaster responses.

The president also expressed dissatisfaction with FEMA’s response to disaster recovery over the “last four years.”



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