President-elect Trump Wednesday blamed the deadly Los Angeles wildfires on Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
As firefighters scrambled to stem the still-spreading infernos, Trump lashed out at Newsom for implementing a water management plan that many Republicans and farmers oppose.
“(Newsom) didn’t care about the people of California. Now the ultimate price is being paid,” Trump wrote on his social media site.
Trump falsely claimed Newsom’s plan restricted the amount of water firefighters had to fight at least four major blazes that have already killed at least two people in Los Angeles and destroyed more than 1,000 homes.
“He is the blame for this. On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes. A true disaster!” Trump added.
Trump has sided with farmers over environmentalists in a long-running dispute over California’s scarce water resources. He backs allowing more water to flow from rain and melting snowpack into the state’s sprawling Sacramento River delta and south into the agricultural heartland of the state’s Central Valley.
The state’s water plan is designed in part to save endangered fish species including Chinook salmon and Delta smelt from extinction in the environmentally sensitive ecosystem. Trump mocked the Delta smelt conservation move as a quixotic effort to save “an essentially worthless fish.”
It’s not clear how Trump’s preferred water plan, or any state water-management strategy, could have mitigated the firestorm.
Experts blame the apocalyptic fires on months of bone-dry weather and the seasonal, Santa Ana winds reaching near-hurricane speeds. Climate scientists say global warming has exacerbated southern California’s arid conditions, laying the groundwork for more frequent and worse fires and other natural disasters.
Newsom did not immediately respond to Trump’s jabs, the latest flare up in their long-running political feud.
He thanked President Biden for quickly ordering federal emergency aid to the state and local authorities as they seek to get a handle on the uncontained fires.
“Firefighters are working through the night to save lives & battle these aggressive fires,” Newsom posted to X early Wednesday morning.
Biden had traveled to Los Angeles on Monday, before the fires erupted, to be with his granddaughter, Naomi, who will give birth to his first great-grandchild on Wednesday.
He had also planned to visit the Coachella Valley to announce one of two national monuments he declared in the state. But he scrapped the trip to avoid diverting law-enforcement resources during the fire emergency.
During the presidential campaign, Newsom blasted Trump over reports that he withheld aid to California after the deadly 2018 wildfires during his first term until aides told him that many Republicans live in the impacted areas.
“He doesn’t care about America,” Newsom tweeted at the time. “He only cares about himself.