An excerpt from Trump's rant about the water: "Millions and millions of gallons of water gets poured [into the Pacific].... I got it all done. Nobody could believe it. It was all done. I said, I got it. You got so much water. All you have to do is sign, and [Newsom] didn't wanna sign.... Every time I go to California, I say you have so much water. They don't know it... I'm telling you, people living in Beverly Hills, they turn off the water...."
Donald Trump was mocked for sounding the alarm on the California water/fire crisis during his interview with Joe Rogan.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 8, 2025
Turns out, he was right.
Trump spent nearly 7 minutes ranting about the issue, blasting Newsom for doing nothing to fix the problem.
Trump specifically… pic.twitter.com/zSls82byPo
TRUMP: Water. You know, in Los Angeles, you can't get proper amounts of water, right? And it's unbelievably expensive. And you might have a house in Beverly Hills, and they're actually thinking about rationing water. Could you believe it?... And I was in, I was in the farm court country with some of the congressmen were driving up highway. And I say, how come all this land is so barren? It's farmland. And it looked terrible. It was just brown and bad. I said, but there's always that little corner that's so green and beautiful. They said, we have no water. I said, do you have a drought? No, we don't have a drought. I said, why do you have no water? Because the water isn't allowed to flow down. It's got a natural flow from Canada, all the way up north of water, more water than they could ever use. And in order to protect a tiny little fish, the water up north gets routed into the Pacific Ocean. Millions and millions of gallons of water gets poured. You gotta see this. We're driving up. And I had never seen it before. It's the most, it's like Iowa. It's the most fertile land.... I said, you mean you have water? And I looked at it, it's like a valve in your sink, except it's massive. The thing's five times taller than your ceiling...
ROGAN: The center of California, like, what is, is it 200 years ago?... The center of California had a fucking enormous lake in the middle of California.... Who knows what they did? But what whatever foolishness that they did led to the situation that they're in now.
TRUMP: Think of those dry forests that burned down all over....
ROGAN (reading info about the history of Tulare Lake): So that's what it looked like. Look at that image.... That was an enormous lake. Beautiful. In the middle of California. Imagine that.
TRUMP: That'd be much more valuable property.... Oh wow. ...
ROGAN: What did they do that, why did, how did it go missing? Well, it said they drained it. 1983. Oh, my God. It went dry a handful of times. Well, You know, lakes do go dry....
TRUMP But think of, it's a big one to go dry. You could have all of the water you need, all of that land would have more water. The whole thing could be like that little patch.... But I kept saying, look at this land. It's beautiful, but it's so dry. And I thought they were going through like a desert, like a drought. They said, no, we have water. But it gets, so I looked into it.... And I got it done.... I could have water for all of that land, water for your forest. You know, your forests are dry as a bone.... That water could be routed. You know, you could have everything. Oh, not only dangerous, billions of dollars a year they spend on forest fires and You know, there's a case with the environment. They're not allowed to rake their forest because you're not allowed to touch it. When a tree falls down after 18 months, it becomes very dry. It's like, you know, like real firewood. It's bad. You know, a tree that's up. These are all things I learned the hard way. The easy way. But when a tree is up, it sucks water. It's wet. I went to that the hard, they had a couple of horrible forest fires in California and I went, I said, you know, you got a lot of trees standing yesterday with healthy trees, sir. I said, with this intense heat that you could see they were charred A little bit on the bottom, but they were gonna be all right because they're soaking wet, because they suck up the water. Right. But when they fall right, they're like, You know, it's like lighting a match. And you gotta be able to clean. They call maintain your forest. So I was with the head of Austria. He said, You know, what's a shame? I see all those forest fires in California. And all they have to do is clean their forest, meaning rake it up, get rid of the leaves, get rid, you know, leaves that are sitting there for five years....
ROGAN: Could you really rake the whole forest? I don't think you could rake the whole forest....
TRUMP: You could certainly get rid of the dead fall.... You know, environmentally, they don't want to do that.... So it was the Department of Commerce that needed the approvals, but Gavin Newsom had to sign them. I got it all done. Nobody could believe it. It was all done. I said, I got it. You got so much water, all you have to do is sign. And that guy didn't wanna sign.
ROGAN: Did he not wanna sign? Because that would be a political victory for you? ..
TRUMP: No, I don't think so. He... used to say he's a great President, that we got along. We did, we actually got along at that point. But I think somebody said, you just can't continue to call him a great President... But we had it all done. He didn't sign. And then we got onto other things. And I, I, every time I go to California, he said, you have so much water, they don't know it. I'm telling you, people living in Beverly Hills, they turn off the water. Same thing with the electric. They wanna go to all electric cars, but they have brownouts every weekend....
Then the subject switches to electric cars. We don't get Trump's answer to the question why Newsom didn't sign, only that it was not mere political opposition to Trump.
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Victor Davis Hanson, a CA farmer, historian and pundit, has complained about this for years. A new reservoir hasn’t been built in decades.
Milton Friedman: "If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand." This appears to be true of the socialist government of California, too.
California is managed by wishful thinking and impulsive direct voting on ballot measures every 2 years. They made their own beds circa 1977 with Proposition 13, and have been digging deeper and deeper ever since.
The problem there is that the best locations were built out long ago. The state has been sucking in water from far, far away Colorado per their river water rights. The pipe it to Lake Mathews east of LA, as pipelines avoid evaporation. The Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite National Park keeps San Francisco alive -- if the greenies had their say it'd be returned to its natural state too. It was a beautiful junior edition of Yosemite Valley before being flooded.
Owens Lake was destroyed and is now a dusty basin -- its river sources are all piped and redirected to LA.
https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/hh.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owens_Valley
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Aqueduct
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Mathews
Turns out, he was right.
Althouse acknowledges Trump was right about something! I have to use my iPhone to comment because tears of amazement pouring down my cheeks have shorted out my keyboard.
And while we’re at it let’s find out if this smelt they are trying to protect is a unique species or whether junk science specialists have been doing junk science like they did with the snail darter.
The left isn't going to let a little thing like Trump warning them about just this situation stop them from finding a way to blame him for it.
Wait. You mean people are surprised that water management is a problem in California? the state that took almost a month to count ballots this last election?
2014 they voted for billions of dollars for building reservoirs, nothing has been built.
Water ownership is power, all over the western states. That power has been held by leftists, who promote DEI, and climate change. People who view farmers as the enemy, and allow some of the best farmland in America to rot.
Hundreds of billions of gallons of water go into the ocean every winter and spring. Is it enough to feed the desert in LA? or the farmers in the central valley? I don't know, but the typical incompetence that is celebrated by bureaucrats is disgusting.
PJ Media below. Makes sense to me.
“ In 2021, Topanga Canyon residents were so concerned with homeless encampments and fire danger that they ostensibly "banned" them. The L.A. County Board of Supervisors voted to ban homeless camps because cooking dinner or drugs outside in dry brush is a really dumb idea. ”
Excellent to see Althouse highlight this while "mainstream media" have their thumb up their butts. "They" are pouncing on the opportunity to write "Republicans seize on wildfires..." while ignoring the fact many prominent conservatives have been warning about this for years.
Last February California had the highest rainfall recorded in 25 years and record snowpack in the Sierras (after several "record" years of snowpack in the last decade). The water was there, if only Newsome wasn't hellbent on destroying dams instead of filling reservoirs.
Worst of all was the confluence of these horrible "progressive" changes that led to this man-caused tragedy: letting enviro-nuts run forest policy leading to CA experiencing worse and worse fires in contrast to the US trend of wildfires declining 80% in 80 years, the Newsome-led hazard insurance debacle that caused policies to skyrocket and all but ONE insurer to leave the state, the short-sighted (and again enviro-nut driven) water management that destroyed our storage capacity while simultaneously diverting sources from rights-holders to an allegedly "endangered" fish in the Sacramento Delta, budget cuts to fire departments and the plethora of DEI-driven policies that removed able-bodied firefighters and replaced them with "equity" appointments who can't or simply won't do the job.
California’s mismanagement of their environment that promotes fires goes back a long time to include when Trump was still funding Democrat campaigns. I remember a trip in the 90’s. Local news was reporting that the median leading to a major highway merge had become so overgrown that it was causing vehicle accidents. LAFD wanted to cut down the overgrowth because it was a fire hazard. They were blocked by California’s EPA because the brush acted to trap trash thrown out by drivers and cutting the brush would allow that trash to be washed into the sea and harm fish. It amazed me as a story, because in Texas, the fire marshall would have supremacy over an imminent fire threat.
No enigma, the problem is California actively destroyed the infrastructure that brought water to the people and made a conscious choice NOT to fill reservoirs that still exist.
My take is the political class has been "punishing" voters since 1977 for voting on Prop 13. Of course I lived there 61.5 years and was affected personally by their anti-population tantrums. Closing off one path of increased revenues does not explain the mismanagement of the state. Your take sounds like a quote from Progressive Myths 101. What happened to that HUGE budget surplus Newsome was bragging about during the last Democrat primary? Where'd it go?
I'm sure the people who live there aren't ready for jokes, but there was something funny on Turner a while ago. Among the specialists who work on movies, like animal wranglers, there was a guy who specialized in building big water tanks. As his reputation spread, he built bigger and bigger. And all this, as Ben M. said, in a city that is known to have plenty of water. Land of dreams.
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@Mike: Both are true. The west started to transport its limited water long distances around 100 years ago, so none of this is a new discussion. There have been water wars, farmer buyouts, and pipeline bombings. For example, see backstory of the film Chinatown (1974). CA was initially developed by "can do" Manifest Destiny engineers in the Elon Musk mold, and they handed the state over to greenie Karens and DEI hires by the 1970s to 1980s.
"Forget it, Trump, it's California."
Wasn't Chinatown about California water? All that's missing is a lacerated nostril for being "nosey."
Chinatown is set in 1937 and portrays the manipulation of a critical municipal resource—water—by a cadre of shadowy oligarchs. It was the first part of Towne's planned trilogy about the character J. J. Gittes, the foibles of the Los Angeles power structure, and the subjugation of public good by private greed.
You are misreading me. What happened to the "huge" dotcom 1.0 budget surplus 25 years ago? That money was spent on state worker pensions and handouts to the blue dependent class, then the dotcom crash happened and the revenue stream evaporated. Vehicle registration fees went from $100 to $500 overnight and Gray Davis was recalled.
As with Jimmy Carter and Joe Biden, a few years of reckless spending on gifts for friends leads to sobering up.
Prop 13 indeed put a leash on Sacramento, but at the same time it split state management into elections versus voter initiatives. Half of the voter initiatives are inane (e.g., 40% of the budget must go to education; the high-speed rail money pit). Still, direct voting takes the pressure off Sacramento and it's thereby inhabited by goofy ideologues with no pragmatic skills. Also, Prop 13 locked the old establishment in their pricey houses -- the old folks economically ate the young. The young then left the state.
It's not millions and millions of water flowing out to the ocean. Every year 6 trillion gallons of water flows out the San Francisco Bay.
And what are they doing about it??
Chinatown is a dramatization of water development for Los Angeles by Mulholland. Their references to the San francisquito dam failure and the importation of water from the Owens valley. The dramatization part was the purposeful restriction of water in the San Fernando valley so that Mulholland and his cronies good buy up all of those citrus orchards for pennies on the dollar. Some of the background of the story can be read on the Wikipedia page for the now defunct town of Owensmouth.
The supreme Court upheld the US fish and wildlife imposed restrictions on water extraction from the San Joaquin Sacramento Delta due to the status of the Delta smelt. I think that really was some time in the early 2000s.
Actually the opposite is true. Jerry Brown tried to get the peripheral canal built in the early 1980s and it was rejected by voters.
Howard said...
The supreme Court upheld the US fish and wildlife imposed restrictions on water extraction from the San Joaquin Sacramento Delta due to the status of the Delta smelt. I think that really was some time in the early 2000s.
Under the Chevron Doctrine, perhaps? Now diminished if not gone thanks to the Trump-appointed SCOTUS.
California's state motto needs to be changed from "Eureka" to "Gooderer & Harderer".
There's too many people living where for centuries prior to European settlement wildfires were worse than they are today. We know this from paleoclimate data, for instance, you can examine the bark of 2,000 year old Sequoias and count the fires and figure their intensity.
My handle means "just asking questions" and my question here is "Why isn't this common knowledge?" Of course it's a rhetorical question, we all know the answer, they don't want us to question the narrative. Cults use this technique all the time. But since California has outlawed voter ID, maybe it's time for them to stop caring what their voters think and do the right thing. I am sure that they can dip their beak in the money flow for any new projects they approve.
I saw a meme today that said...
"They're deliberately using DEI to disguise sabotage as incompetence.
You know that, right?"
why Newsom didn't sign
It's Chinatown 3.
You get the government, priorities of same and services that you vote for.
If that’s Blue, too bad for you.
Trump: “When California sends its water, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending your water. They’re not sending your water. They’re sending water that has lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with it. They’re bringing brown lawns. They’re bringing wildfires. They’re creating deserts. And some, I assume, is good water.”
Will we be finding out soon that the Delta Smelt isn't actually a separate species, but just a specious one thought up and dealt out by activists?
John Muir's fight against the Hetch Hetchy dam became a kind of icon for the Sierra Club he co-founded and for other California progressives. In recent years, the Sierra Club has turned against Muir. He was too racist, etc. -- like everyone else a century ago.
Leftism boils down to demanding incompatible things coexist. In this case it's wilderness intermingled with luxurious mansions and haute cuisine restaurants.
The truth hurts. Many LA homeowners/residents are confronted by that horrible truth this week, and the devastating consequences. People's lives are probably ruined by this Californication governance. Karen Bass and Newsom need to resign immediately. Too bad they face no personal financial liability consequence for their gross incompetence.
“George Skelton’s question of why the state and federal governments don’t store more stormwater before it escapes to the sea is not a new one.
In the late 1990s, the federal and state governments did in fact forge a cooperative compact — called “Cal Fed” — to achieve what I said would be “water of sufficient quantity and quality to provide California’s needs for fish, farm and factory.” Both state and federal agencies were to budget and coordinate spending and permitting for agreed-upon projects to achieve that goal.
For some years there was such cooperation, particularly in the funding of conservation and environmental projects. But when year after year I included money in the state budget for surface collection and storage projects to bank against droughts, the money was removed by the Democratic majorities in the Legislature. When agricultural interests rightly complained that they were being cheated out of their fair share of projects, support for Cal Fed evaporated. The bargain had been broken.”
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/readersreact/la-ol-le-stormwater-capture-pete-wilson-20190302-story.html
Trump says, "water up north gets routed into the Pacific Ocean."
True! But . . . that's not the cause of this week's problem in Pacific Palisades. LA's problem with fire hydrants running dry is a local, engineering issue.
Think about the "local" water towers that are common in rural areas that balance a more-or-less levelizes supply into the area with the highly variable, instantaneous demand of residents, businesses, industries and even fire companies.
In urban settings, instead of being on a tower, the tanks are typically on the ground or underground.
According to one report, there are three tanks, one million gallon capacity each, supplying the Pacific Palisades area . . . more than sufficient, the designers figured, I guess, for any anticipated scenario. They didn't anticipate the need to support multiple fire companies pumping thousands of gallons-per-minute for days and days. Who would have.
There are serious issues with California's water policies and practices and I certainly have no interest in defending Newsom. I've written here to explain why the reported "dry hydrant" problem has nothing to do with Snail Darters, the Colorado River or the fact that SoCal's rainy season hasn't started.
Anyway, that's what I think.
Ah. Yes you're right.
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You are misreading me.
Yes. Wasn't the first time and probably won't be the last.
Now that I know Bass started out as a Marxist terrorist Bee's quote appears particularly apt.
Water and POWER. L.A County Water & Power to be specific.
In California we got the government that Democrat ballot harvesting created votes for. One of the top reasons I left there for the Free state of Florida.
That and everyone I know there who's outside the fire zone had their power turned off because of high winds*. All the refrigerated food is now spoiled. Frozen food is on the verge of being so as well.
*Cheaper than losing 1000s of houses and businesses would be burying the power lines so they can still work in high winds. But nooooooooooooo...
Great point.
Exactamundo. In the mid 1980s I worked on three water Bank projects in California. The Kern river water Bank, the Chino basin water Bank and a groundwater recharge project in Anaheim. Nothing got built after that. The environmental whack job progressive theory behind stopping these projects was that developing infrastructure was growth inducing.
"But since California has outlawed voter ID" California and other states that don't require ID count ballets not votes.
"maybe it's time for them to stop caring what their voters think" There is no evidence that democrats give a damn about what voters think.
"I am sure that they can dip their beak in the money flow for any new projects they approve." That's given, it's built into every contract that democrats get their ten percent. And not just for the big guy.
Reported in NYT..
“On Friday, a team of researchers argued that the fish was a phantom all along.”
“There is, technically, no snail darter,” said Thomas Near, curator of ichthyology at the Yale Peabody Museum.”
Link
Appears Lake Hollywood is still a source.
In the last couple of years, we've driven through the Central Valley from one end to the other, and were struck by the variety of agriculture, including tomato fields and of other produce - but also by many patches of parched dirt. There are a lot of almond groves next to I-5. Some are prosperous and in full flower, and others look dried up and dead. All along the highway there are signs posted by locals excoriating Newsom and the Legislature for letting the water bypass them and flow into the ocean.
Delta Smelt? There really should be some way to make a joke along the lines of "He who Delta'd it Smelted it" but I just can't seem to make it work. Anyone else want to give it a try?
It doesn't sound like it was Chevron. Fish and Wildlife said 'go ahead and build', but the National Resource Defense Council sued and won. Then it got complicated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_smelt#Court_protection
Is it not true that Californians voted to authorize some tens of billions of dollars to build additional water storage facilities 10 years ago, none of which actually got built?
The way it seems to work in California:
1. The people elect Democrat politicians.
2. Those politicians ignore a problem.
3. The people get frustrated with inaction on the problem and put an initiative on the ballot to deal with it.
4. The initiative passes.
5. Democrat politicians ignore the initiative if they don't like it.
6. The people re-elect those Democrat politicians.
Austria, or Australia? I think the latter is more likely given our environment.
Are these fires happening in eucalypt forests? If so, that's how those trees work. It's a bad idea to plant them near civilization in dry climates.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus#Fire_hazard
Read "Cadillac Desert" Marc Reisner, 1986
After the enormous East Bay fire in 1991 (officially called the Tunnel Fire) I hoped for a purge of eucalyptus in the greater SF Bay area, but no such luck. Nobody plants them anymore, but the wild ones still proliferate like weeds.
It would be a horrible shame if a Dem politician suffered a huge political debacle because of public perception of mismanagement of a natural disaster which was not that politician's fault.
I would feel just awful if that were to happen.
Well, turns out the "Climate Change" that caused these fires was just a bunch of homeless arsonists. Who saw THAT coming?
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