As the city of Los Angeles looks to rebuild after the devastating wildfires in preparation for the 2028 Olympic games, it seems like Donald Trump is causing more problems than he is helping.
In the aftermath of the fires, California Gov. Gavin Newsom called on Donald Trump to help with the rebuilding process while praising him for helping bring the 2028 Olympics to Los Angeles.
“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.”
Trump, however, has not made things easy as he has spread misinformation about the state’s water situation.
In recent weeks, Trump has continued to push misinformation and inaccurate claims, even 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.”
This remark mirrored false assertions that Governor Gavin Newsom and state officials were intentionally preventing water from Northern California from reaching Los Angeles and instead releasing it into the Pacific Ocean through 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 insist that water from the Pacific Northwest was readily accessible to Los Angeles but was instead being diverted into the Pacific Ocean via a so-called “valve” – something that does not actually exist. In reality, there isn’t even a pipeline carrying water from the Pacific Northwest to California, as such a project has long been deemed impractical and prohibitively expensive.
Still, that hasn’t stopped Trump from continuing to float 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.”
Following these claims, Trump went on to declare that he had personally intervened using the “United States Military” and “emergency powers” to “turn the water on” from the Pacific Northwest.
“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!!!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
As it turns out, Trump’s move seemed to cause more harm than good, and one prominent Democrat quickly called him out on social media.
Following Trump’s claims that he “turned on the water,” Sen. Alex Padilla of California called out the president for recklessly ordering two dams to open at full capacity in a move that would not even help Los Angeles.
“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,” Padilla said in a post on X, the social media website that was 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.”
Trump has not offered a public response to Padilla, but it’s clear that he is not happy wit this move from the president.
