Earlier this month, California Governor Gavin Newsom made a public plea to U.S. President Donald Trump, asking for assistance as Los Angeles recovers from devastating wildfires in preparation for the 2028 Olympics. However, Trump has not made things easy, continuing to push verifiably false claims about the situation.
The controversy began when Newsom acknowledged Trump’s role in securing the 2028 Olympics for Los Angeles, emphasizing that it was “an opportunity for him to shine” as the city works toward 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 earlier this 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, seems far less willing to cooperate with California.
Over the past several weeks, he has continued spreading misinformation and inaccurate claims, going so 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 statement echoed false claims that Newsom and state officials were deliberately blocking water from Northern California from reaching Los Angeles and releasing it into the Pacific Ocean using a “valve” instead.
“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 available to Los Angeles but was instead being diverted into the Pacific Ocean through a supposed “valve” – which does not actually exist. In fact, there is not even a pipeline of water that exists from the Pacific Northwest to California. Such a plan has consistently been dismissed as impractical and far too expensive.
But that has not stopped Trump from suggesting it as a possibility.
“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.
None of this is remotely accurate.
The military did not intervene, there is no “valve” that can simply be “turned on,” and – most importantly – no such pipeline even exists between the Pacific Northwest and California. This is clear and obvious misinformation from Trump, and California wasted no time in calling out Trump for it.
“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.
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.”
Meanwhile, 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.”
“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.”
It’s not clear what Trump stands to gain from repeatedly spreading such blatant misinformation, but it’s clear that California will not stand for it.
Despite the obvious disagreement, the two sides will need to work out their differences if they are going to work on rebuilding Los Angeles in time to host the 2028 Olympics.
