Washington CNN — Another natural disaster, another series of false claims from President-elect Donald Trump.
For years, Trump has littered his statements on California wildfires and other disasters with inaccurate assertions. He did it again on Wednesday as wildfires raged in Los Angeles County.
Trump claimed on social media Wednesday that President Joe Biden is leaving him “NO MONEY IN FEMA.” Facts First: Trump’s claim is false. Though FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund was depleted last year by a series of major disasters, Biden signed a bill in December that replenished the fund. The current balance of the Disaster Relief Fund is approximately $27 billion, FEMA told CNN in an email on Wednesday.
Trump made similar false claims about FEMA being out of money in the wake of Hurricane Helene in the fall.
Trump also blamed Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom for the wildfire crisis, claiming in a social media post that Newsom “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.” Facts First: This is false. Newsom has never refused to sign a “water restoration declaration.” In fact, there is no such document, as Newsom’s office said on social media on Wednesday and experts on California water policy confirmed.
Trump continued that Newsom refused to sign the supposed declaration because the governor “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.” Facts First: These Trump claims include exaggerations, inaccuracies and an overarching false narrative. Experts on California water policy said Wednesday that there is no basis for linking the existence of the Southern California fires or challenges in the firefighting effort to the water that is kept in the north of the state to protect the smelt and other species and ecosystems.
The fire crisis was caused by a combination of exceptionally high winds and the exceptionally dry state of the hilly brushland in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, which has had minuscule rain for months. Trump’s proposals to send more water to Central Valley agricultural properties would not have shielded Los Angeles brushland that is not irrigated.
There are various other factual problems with Trump’s claims in the post. Trump’s vague claim that there are “not firefighting planes” is untrue. Firefighting aircraft were back in operation over Los Angeles County on Wednesday, armed with water, after being temporarily grounded starting Tuesday night because of high winds.
The claim that there is “no water for fire hydrants” is an overstatement. Hydrants in other parts of Los Angeles County did have water even as the Pacific Palisades hydrants went dry.
Advocates of preserving the Delta smelt want more water, not “less,” for the Delta area where the species lives. And contrary to Trump’s suggestion, Newsom hasn’t stopped water from flowing into the state entirely.
This story has been updated to note that a reservoir in Pacific Palisades was closed for repairs at the time of the fire.
