Trump criticizes California’s governor for prioritizing endangered fish over fighting wildfires

President-elect Trump sparked a heated debate over whether Democrats should be responsible for the California wildfires after he accused Gov. Gavin Newsom of putting protecting an endangered species of fish more important than protecting the state’s residents from wildfires.

The president-elect has long railed against California Democrats for restricting the availability of water to Californians from the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers in the northern part of the state. He remained stumped on the issue during his 2016 campaign, and during his first term, Trump sought to divert more water from a delta where the two rivers meet and is home to an endangered species of fish called the smelt.

But Newsom and his administration challenged that in court, arguing that opinions suggesting the water diversion would have no impact on fish were wrong. Newsom also previously opposed efforts to build a pipeline that would divert water south. He has overseen programs in his state that divert hundreds of billions of gallons of stormwater accumulation annually into the Sacramento-San Jaoquin River Delta to help smelt habitat – rather than diverting the water south to be used by people in the central and southern parts of the river can be used condition.

BERNIE SANDERS angry for blaming climate change for California wildfires: ‘Global warming ate my homework’

Images of Delta smelt kept alive in a hatchery at the UC Davis Fish Conservation and Culture Lab in Byron, California. (Randy Pench/Sacramento Bee/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Trump sparked a firestorm on Wednesday when he criticized Newsom on his Truth Social platform for wanting to “protect an essentially worthless fish” instead of protecting Californians’ water needs. However, the comments are not new. Ahead of the November election, Trump made this claim in an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan in October.

“I was in some (California) farm country with some congressmen,” he told Rogan. “We’re driving up a highway and I’m like, ‘How come all this land is so barren?’ It’s farmland and it just looked brown and bad. I said, “But there’s always this little corner that’s so green and beautiful.” They said, “We don’t have water.” I said, “Are you having a drought?” “No, we’re not having a drought.” I said, “Why don’t you have water?” Because the water is not allowed to flow downward, millions and millions of liters of water are dumped into the Pacific Ocean.

The dried and cracked soil in an irrigation ditch next to a corn field on a farm in Central California. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

The devastating wildfires in California have killed at least five people and forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. The Palisades Fire alone has burned more than 17,000 acres of land, which is larger than the island of Manhattan. The damage is currently estimated at tens of billions.

The president-elect’s claims were coupled with reports that firefighters were running out of water while battling the blaze, prompting the state to mobilize resources to replenish depleted supplies.

The cause of Los Angeles’ raging wildfires remains unclear as Mayor Karen Bass defends her leadership

“There is no water in the Palisades. There is no water coming from the hydrants. This is complete mismanagement of the city. “It’s not the firefighters’ fault, it’s the city’s fault,” Rick Caruso, a billionaire developer who unsuccessfully ran against Karen Bass for mayor in 2022, told Fox News.

A California firefighter battles a raging forest fire. (Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The governor’s press office responded to Trump’s accusations that he was completely wrong, arguing that the president-elect was “conflating two completely unrelated things: shipping water to Southern California and supplying it from local storage.”

“By and large, there is currently no water shortage in Southern California, despite Trump’s claims that he is opening an imaginary spigot,” Newsom’s office added. “(The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power) said pumping stations at lower elevations did not have enough pressure refill tanks at higher elevations due to high water demand, and the ongoing fire made it difficult for crews to access the pumps. In addition, they used water tankers to supply water – a common tactic when fighting fires in the wild.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Firefighters in California made progress Thursday in slowing the spread of the fire, according to the Associated Press. Crews were reportedly able to extinguish a fire that broke out in the Hollywood Hills on Wednesday evening and had lifted an evacuation order for the area on Thursday. Still, the fires continue to burn and most were reportedly only partially contained as of Thursday afternoon.