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The US president-elect has levelled a string of allegations against California governor Gavin Newsom, who has slammed Trump in turn for “politicising human tragedy.”
A political spat has erupted between US President-elect Donald Trump and California’s state governor Gavin Newsom over the wildfires that have claimed at least 24 lives and torched swathes of southern California.In a series of incendiary posts on his platform Truth Social, Trump has accused Newsom’s administration of failings in preventing and responding to the fires.”One of the best and most beautiful parts of the United States of America is burning down to the ground. It’s ashes, and Gavin Newscum should resign. This is all his fault!!!” Trump said.Newsom has tried to appease Trump in a letter inviting him to survey the damage in LA. But he has also warned the incoming president from using “human tragedy for political gain” and from spreading “disinformation from the sidelines.”We fact-checked some of Trump’s claims.Did Newsom fail to sign a ‘water restoration declaration’?Amid reports of water shortages for firefighting efforts, Trump claimed in a Truth Social postthat the governor had failed to sign a “water restoration declaration” that would have allowed “millions of gallons of water” to flow into the affected area.Newsom’s office responded by pointing out that there is no record of such a declaration.It is believed Trump is referencing a proposal made during his first presidency to redirect water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in the north of the state to farms and urban areas further south.Newsom opposed those plans and his administration mounted a legal challenge against them, citing concerns over endangered species in the Delta, including salmon and smelt.According to Trump, “he (Newsom) wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish, called a smelt.”Speaking with NBC News, Newsom said that connecting the Delta smelt issue to the fire was “inexcusable because it’s inaccurate” and “incomprehensible to anyone that understands water policy in the state.”Trump seemed to link Newsom’s position on the diversion of Delta waters to the reported shortages in water available for firefighting efforts. But the water scarcity director for US non-profit Natural Resources Defense Council, Mark Gold, told CBS News that the spat over the transfer of Delta waters has “nothing to do with what amount of water we have stored within the region.”“The Metropolitan Water District has a record amount of water stored at this time,” Gold added.Other local officials are reported to have described power cuts as the main obstacle to using water pumps in the affected areas, rather than water shortages.Did fire hydrants run dry?Trump has also drawn attention to how fire hydrants, which allow firefighters to tap into the water supply, had no water left in them. His claim is partly true.Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass has said that at one point over the past week, 20% of the city’s hydrants were dry.Janisse Quiñones, chief engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said last Wednesday that at 3.00 am that morning, “all of the fire hydrants went dry in the Palisades”, the wealthy suburb of Los Angeles and one of the most areas affected by the wildfires.Governor Newsom has ordered an independent investigation into the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) over the issue. He said: “While water supplies from local fire hydrants are not designed to extinguish wildfires over large areas, losing supplies from fire hydrants likely impaired the effort to protect some homes and evacuation corridors.”Newsom also described reports of dry fire hydrants as “deeply troubling” in a letter addressed to the heads of the LA Department of Water and Power and LA County Public Works.Will Trump inherit a budget-less FEMA?Other Democrats, including LA mayor Karen Bass and outgoing President Joe Biden, have also been in the firing line of Trump’s accusations.Trump claimed last Wednesday that Joe Biden will hand over presidential duties to him with “no money” in the budget of FEMA, the US government agency for emergency management.It will be one of the main government agencies responsible for recovery and relief following the disaster, mostly through its disaster relief fund.That fund currently stands at $27 billion, according to a FEMA spokesperson, after President Biden signed a bill last December earmarking $29 billion for the fund.While this may not be sufficient to fund the relief efforts in the aftermath of the blaze, it is untrue that there is “no money” in the fund, as Trump claimed.Myths about FEMA often spread during natural disasters.Social media users have claimed that the agency has been left with no money to spend on wildfire relief in California after funds were diverted towards a programme for migrants.Such claims also circulated following hurricanes Helene and Milton, to which FEMA responded: “Disaster Relief Fund money has not been diverted to other, non-disaster related efforts.”
