When Los Angeles County, California was hit with massive and devastating wildfires last month, it seemed like newly-elected United States President Donald Trump was set to play an integral role in the recovery and rebuild as the city prepared to host the 2028 Olympic Games. Now, however, it seems like California is done with his help.
It all started when California Gov. Gavin Newsom praised Donald Trump for his involvement in securing the 2028 Olympics for Los Angeles, emphasizing that it was “an opportunity for him to shine” as the city focuses on rebuilding for the global event.
“President Donald Trump was helpful in getting the Olympics to the United States of America — to get it down here in LA. We thank him for that. This is an opportunity for him to shine, for this country to shine, for California and this community to shine,” Newsom said last month.
“That’s why we’re already organizing a Marshall plan. We already have a team looking, reimagining LA 2.0, and we’re making sure everyone’s included.”
Since then, Trump has created more problems than help.
In recent weeks, Trump has spread misinformation and made the situation difficult, going as far as to tell Sean Hannity on Fox News that he might withhold aid from California unless the state agrees to “let water flow down,” trumpeting a false claim that Newsom and state officials were intentionally preventing water from Northern California from reaching Los Angeles and instead diverting it into the Pacific Ocean using a supposed “valve.”
“Look, Gavin’s got one thing he can do,” Trump said according to the New York Times. “He can release the water that comes from the north. There is massive amounts of water, rainwater and mountain water, that comes, too, with the snow, comes down as it melts, there’s so much water, they’re releasing it into the Pacific Ocean.”
Trump went on to falsely insist that water from the Pacific Northwest was readily available to Los Angeles but was instead being funneled into the Pacific Ocean through a nonexistent “valve.” In reality, there is no pipeline connecting the Pacific Northwest to California, and such a project has consistently been dismissed as impractical and far too expensive.
Still, Trump has continued to push the idea.
“Los Angeles has massive amounts of water available to it,” Trump claimed during a Tuesday press conference. “All they have to do is turn the valve, and that’s the valve coming back from and down from the Pacific Northwest, where millions of gallons of water a week and a day, even, in many cases, pours into California, goes all through California down to Los Angeles. And they turned it off.”
In an apparent attempt to justify his misinformation, Trump went on to order two dams in central California to be opened, letting roughly 2.2 billion gallons of water flow out of reservoirs. Trump announced this move himself on social media, saying “the water is flowing in California,” and adding the water was “heading to farmers throughout the State, and to Los Angeles.”
However, this move actually created more problems and did not solve any problems.
Heather Cooley, director of research at the Pacific Institute, highlighted two significant issues with Trump’s decision: the water is being wasted by releasing it during the wet winter season, and it won’t even reach Los Angeles anyway. She said the move provides “zero benefit” to the state and actually causes harm.
“They were holding extra water in those reservoirs because of the risk that it would be a dry summer,” Cooley said, according to CNN. “This puts agriculture at risk of insufficient water during the summer months.”
“This release is extremely concerning,” Cooley added. “It’s providing zero benefit and putting California farmers at risk of water supply constraints in the coming months.”
Needless to say, state officials have not been happy with Trump’s continuous stream of misinformation and his ill-advised moves. As a result, high-ranking officials and state agencies have gone out of their way to voice their displeasure.
“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,” the California Department of Water Resources said in a post on X.
Additionally, the State of California published an extensive fact-check of the Trump administration’s claims this week on a webpage titled “Hear the experts give the real facts on California water,” citing experts and credible sources as it debunks many of Trump’s brazenly false statements.
“Scientists, water managers, state leaders, and experts throughout the state are calling out the federal administration’s ongoing misinformation campaign on water management in California,” the state’s website reads. “Fact: There is no spigot to magically make water appear at a wildfire, despite the administration’s false claims.”
John Buse, general counsel for the Center for Biological Diversity, was so baffled by Trump’s falsehoods that he struggled to even interpret them, saying, “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.”
Miles Johnson, the Columbia Riverkeeper, dismissed Trump’s claims outright, stating that the notion of a valve simply cutting off water to California “is completely far-fetched and detached from reality.”
“Trump just ordered two dams open to levels that would have flooded Central Valley communities and farms – all to justify his lies about the LA fires,” California Sen. Alex Padilla posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
“These rivers don’t even flow to Los Angeles,” Padilla continued. “The incompetence isn’t just staggering, it’s dangerous. And I’m demanding answers.”
“The Trump Administration showed gross incompetence by issuing a federal freeze order and then rescinding it. The Administration is now wasting water that CA farmers need in the summer. Their incompetence is harmful, dangerous and increases food prices,” former California congressman Ted Lieu wrote in a separate post.
On top of all of this, California Secretary of State Dr. Shirley N. Weber announced last month that a ballot measure asking whether California should secede from the United States and become its own country has been cleared to start gathering signatures.
While California might have been seeking Trump’s help to rebuild Los Angeles in preparation for the 2028 Olympics, it’s pretty clear that the state is done with his help.
