WATER FIGHT! Trump says military turned the water on, California slaps back

9

For ads-free news, click here.

President Donald Trump, who has been critical of the way the State of California has managed their water supply, announced in a social media post Monday night that the military has now turned on the water.

This all comes amid the recent devastating and deadly wildfires in Los Angeles, as firefighters could not fight the fires in many areas due to no water in the fire hydrants.  Many residents also reported they had no water from their outdoor water faucets.

Now the “water fight” is on, as the California Water Resources department has denied Trump’s statement.

Trump wrote on Truth Social late Monday night, “The United States Military just entered the Great State of California and, under Emergency Powers, TURNED ON THE WATER flowing abundantly from the Pacific Northwest, and beyond. The days of putting a Fake Environmental argument, over the PEOPLE, are OVER. Enjoy the water, California!!!”

The California Department of Water Resources then fired back on X, “The military did not enter California. The federal government restarted federal water pumps after they were offline for maintenance for three days. State water supplies in Southern California remain plentiful.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office then blasted out an entire press release with comments from state water officials, politicians and other experts, all refuting Trump’s comments about their water supply.

Below are just some excerpts from the press release:

Association of California Water Agencies: “Water supply has not hindered firefighting efforts. Reservoirs in California are at or above average storage levels for this time of year, thanks in part to years of proactive water management.”

Deven Upadhyay, Metropolitan Water District: “The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has enough water in storage to meet roughly three years of water demand. We can deliver what our agencies need.”

Marty Adams, former general manager and chief engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power or DWP: “ There’s way more water in local storage than you could ever fight a fire with.”

Jennifer Pierre, general manager, State Water Contractors: “The policies currently in place overseeing the movement of California water maximize supply in compliance with the law and based on best available science.”

Letitia Grenier, director of the Public Policy Institute of California’s Water Policy Center: “The transfer of water from Northern California to Southern California is not related to water availability to fight the fires in the Los Angeles area. Currently, reservoirs in the Los Angeles area are mostly full.”

Stephanie Pincetl, director of the California Center for Sustainable Communications at UCLA: “We’re finger pointing away from the problem.  We have really no lack of water. What we have is an infrastructure that is not made to fight cataclysmic fires, biblical-size fires.”

Peter Gleick, hydro-climatologist and co-founder of the Pacific Institute: “[Trump’s order on California water policy] is what you get when you mix bluster, ignorance, and disinformation. There are no ‘enormous amounts of water’ that can be redirected legally, economically, or environmentally to different users in California ….”

John Buse, general counsel for the Center for Biological Diversity: “It’s difficult to explain what he’s talking about because nobody knows what he’s talking about. The idea of a valve and water will just flow is preposterous.”

Mark Gold, water scarcity director for the Natural Resources Defense Council and a board member of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California: “Tying Bay-Delta management into devastating wildfires that have cost people’s lives and homes is nothing short of irresponsible, and it’s happening at a time when the Metropolitan Water District has the most water stored in its system in the history of the agency. It’s not a matter of having enough water coming from Northern California to put out a fire….”

“Los Angeles has access to more than enough water to fight the fires. I can say with great authority, we have as much water stored as any time in the history of our agency.”

LA Water Keeper: “There is no need to increase water deliveries from the Bay-Delta or any other source from which LA imports water for the region to be able to fight the current fires.”

Miles Johnson, Columbia Riverkeeper: “That idea [of a valve] is completely far-fetched and detached from reality.”

Jason Wise @jasonjourneyman, water and environment influencer: “LA has plenty of water, reservoirs are near full because of the last two years of heavy rain. Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to score political points off a tragedy.”

Senator Alex Padilla: “Trump is fixated on false claims about California’s water supply. And he’s using it to withhold disaster aid from wildfire victims…Let’s get one easy thing out of the way. There’s no ‘valve’ that needs to be turned.”

California State Assemblymember Isaac G. Bryan: “I hope while Trump is in California he takes us to the giant faucet that he says releases all the water. I chair the state Natural Resource Committee and I’d love to see it. It’s got to be huge. We could turn it on together.”

Many people aren’t buying what the State of California is trying to sell. Below is just some of the pushback they’re getting on social media:

“If the pumps were only offline for the last three days, why was there no water to fight gavin’s infernos?” one person asked.

Howard Roark wrote: “Born and raised in SOCAL you all are a disgrace, we’ve had more rain in the last 2 years than 20, yet to make money we have toilet to tap installations popping up all over the state,you starved our farmers and drained our recreation lakes and tributaries LET 100S OF MILLIONS OF GALLONS RUN TO THE SEA, MAYBE GET BACK TO WORK FCKOS.”

“Yea just like the reservoir in LA was empty for “maintenance” got it LOL,” another user mocked.

Mark Rigsby wrote, “Wait. So, California is saying that California still has the water California always had even though California didn’t have water like five minutes ago. What?”

NEWS ALERT: Disturbing details surface on LA’s $750k-a-year ‘equity’ water chief and empty reservoir

Follow us on X (Formerly Twitter.)
The DML News App: www.X.com/DMLNewsApp

The Dennis Michael Lynch Podcast archive is available below, with the most recent on top. Never miss an episode. Subscribe to the show by downloading The DML News App or go to Apple Podcasts.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

CLICK HERE FOR COMMENTS SECTION