Trump Threatens to Cut Wildfire Aid if California Doesn’t Deliver More Water

Gov. Gavin Newsom said all Americans should be alarmed that the former president wants to “block emergency disaster funds to settle political vendettas.”In 2019, Mr. Trump as president battled with California leaders over how much water should go to farmers rather than through the Delta. Five years later, he seems intent on reviving that fight and using federal aid as leverage should he become president.California has had a tough fire year, with nearly a million acres torched across the state so far. Three major fires are burning in Southern California that have destroyed dozens of houses and displaced tens of thousands of people from their homes.

Many of the state’s worst fires this year have been in rural and mountainous parts of California that are heavily Republican. Kern, Tehama and Tulare counties have all suffered massive blazes this year, and in the 2020 election all went for Mr. Trump.

Fire experts say that the state’s fire seasons are generally becoming worse because of a century of fire suppression that allowed thick and unchecked growth of vegetation. Those forests and shrubs are especially ready to burn as climate change makes the weather warmer and hotter.

But Mr. Trump erroneously blamed California’s fires on forests becoming desiccated because the state’s water supply has been allowed to flow into the Pacific Ocean. He said that diverting the water to farmers would dampen the land while helping the agricultural industry. Most of California’s fires occur on forest land, on hillsides and in canyons that are not used for farming.You’d stop many of these horrible fires that are costing billions and billions of dollars,” Mr. Trump said on Friday. “One thing I’m going to do for California — vote for me, California — I’m going to give you safety. I’m going to give you a great border. I’m going to give you more water than almost anybody has, and the farmers up north are going to be able to use 100 percent of their land, not 1 percent of their land.”