Trump Pushes Misinfo, Blames Dems and ‘Worthless Fish’ for L.A. Blazes
As Los Angeles burns in catastrophic firestorms whipped by the region’s infamous Santa Ana winds, President-elect Donald Trump is not offering care or condolences. Rather, Trump is blasting the state’s Democratic governor and reigniting a long-simmering feud about California’s water policies. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump nonsensically excoriated Gavin Newsom (whom Trump calls “Newscum”) for allegedly favoring a “worthless fish” over Southern Californians, alleging, “the ultimate price is being paid.”
The Los Angeles region is currently bone dry; the rainy season in Southern California, typically in swing by the new year, has yet to commence. Plentiful fire-ready fuel and the high-velocity Santa Ana winds typical of the season have allowed just a few sparks to set Pacific Palisades, Pasadena, and part of the San Fernando Valley ablaze. At least two people are dead, and more than a thousand structures have burned to the ground.
Newsom may have poked the bear in public comments Tuesday praising Joe Biden’s emergency response, while seeming to sideswipe Trump. “It didn’t take more than a text message” to the current president, Newsom said, to get a federal emergency declaration rolling. Newsom added that he appreciated Biden’s no-nonsense approach. “No politics, no hand-wringing, no kissing of the feet. The president of the United States said, ‘Yes. What else do you need.’” Newsom insisted that this level of presidential comity and concern is “not something we should not take for granted at this moment in American history.”
As if to prove the point, Trump insisted of Newsom on Truth Social: “He is the blame for this.”
Trump has long been obsessed with California’s policy of allocating roughly half the state’s waterflow for natural runoff, seeking to preserve healthy rivers and wetlands, including providing enough water to keep salt water out of the Sacramento River delta. (The “worthless fish” Trump refers to is a Delta Smelt, a small fish native to that region that’s listed as endangered under state law.)
In Trump’s mind, a different policy “would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way.” In reality, the areas of greater Los Angeles that are burning are not, and would not, typically be irrigated, relying on seasonal rains to mitigate water danger.
Like some sort of comic-book villain, Trump has already threatened to let California suffer from fire disasters unless it adopts his view of appropriate water allocation. During the 2024 campaign, Trump menaced that he would withhold wildfire relief from California if the state did not revise its policies. He said in an October campaign stop near Coachella: “Gavin, if you don’t do it, we’re not giving any of that fire money that we send you all the time for all the fire, forest fires that you have.”
Trump’s early afternoon Truth Social ranting — which interrupted his posting fanciful maps showing the expansion of the United States into Canada — also included Trump complaining that “Gavin Newscum and his Los Angeles crew have contained exactly ZERO percent of the fire…. This is not Government. I can’t wait till January 20th!” Trump soon added in all caps: “NO WATER IN THE FIRE HYDRANTS, NO MONEY IN FEMA. THIS IS WHAT JOE BIDEN IS LEAVING ME. THANKS JOE!”
Trump — who has touted himself as a “stable genius” — appears to have water on the brain. He has habitually kvetched about water-efficient fixtures and toilets. During a press conference Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago, Trump singled out federal policies to encourage low-flow faucets, showerheads, dishwashers, and washing machines as his latest bugbears. “They want very, very little water to go into your dishwasher, almost none,” he said. “And you know what people do? They just keep pressing, pressing, pressing, keep it going. They end up using more water.” Trump fumed of low-flow fixtures: “No water comes out of the shower. It goes drip, drip, drip.”
During these remarks, Trump unwittingly fingered the real culprit in Southern California’s devastating winter fires: “It’s called rain,” he said, adding almost mystically, “It comes down from heaven.”
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