The president said that he used ‘emergency powers’ to make it happen.
President Donald Trump on Monday evening wrote on social media that the U.S. military, under his direction, turned on water supplies in California following devastating wildfires in Los Angeles and Southern California, although state officials have since said otherwise.
“The United States Military just entered the Great State of California and, under Emergency Powers, TURNED ON THE WATER flowing abundantly from the Pacific Northwest, and beyond,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
“The days of putting a Fake Environmental Argument, over the PEOPLE, are OVER. Enjoy the water, California!!!”
In what appears to be a response to Trump’s statement, state officials said that federal officials turned on a federal water-pumping facility in Northern California after a three-day maintenance period, adding that water resources in the southern part of the state are abundant.
“The military did not enter California,” California’s Department of Water Resources wrote on social media platform X at around 1 a.m. ET on Tuesday. “The federal government restarted federal water pumps after they were offline for maintenance for three days. State water supplies in Southern California remain plentiful.”
It also included an image of a canal used for irrigating crops, commonly seen throughout California’s Central Valley.
Since taking office last week, Trump has signed executive orders targeting California’s wildfire management and water situation, just weeks after he criticized state officials and California Gov. Gavin Newsom over how they responded to devastating wildfires that ravaged through areas in northern Los Angeles earlier this month.
“The recent deadly and historically destructive wildfires in Southern California underscore why the State of California needs a reliable water supply and sound vegetation management practices in order to provide water desperately needed there, and why this plan must immediately be reimplemented,” the president wrote last week in an order.
Trump, in comments to the media and in statements posted on the White House website, has also made reference to hydrants in Los Angeles that were dry during the peak of those wildfires. Then-President Joe Biden confirmed on Jan. 9 that there was a lack of water supply because power stations were intentionally shut down during high winds that may have caused more fires.
On Sunday, Trump ordered the federal government to override the state of California’s water-management practices to bolster firefighting efforts, which directs the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to deliver more water and hydropower through the Central Valley Project, a network of dams, canals, and other infrastructure.
Trump’s order also directs the White House budget office to see whether it can attach conditions on federal aid to the state to ensure cooperation. The president said in an interview with Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity last week that he would potentially withhold federal aid to California if it does not comply with demands over water resources and voter ID laws.
In response, Newsom, who has been critical of Trump over the years, has refuted statements made by the president about the state’s water situation.
“Maybe the president just doesn’t know that there’s not a spigot that can be turned to solve all the water problems that he alleges exist, that don’t exist, as it relates to the state water system here in Southern California,” he told reporters last week.
Late last week, Trump visited Los Angeles and met with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and other officials, noting that he did not realize the extent of the devastation in Los Angeles.
“I didn’t realize. I saw a lot of bad things on television, but the extent of it, the size of it. We flew over it,” Trump said, referring to the fire damage. “It is devastation. It’s incredible. It’s really an incineration.”
At one point in their meeting, Trump clashed with Bass over allowing residents, including those living in the scorched Pacific Palisades area, to return to their properties.
At a news conference on Monday, Bass told reporters that she would allow all Pacific Palisades residences to return after evacuation orders were lifted.
Reuters contributed to this report.