Trump's False Tale of Sending Water to LA
Trump inaccurately asserted: I launched an invasion of Los Angeles. His water discharges did not direct to LA.
In a bold, flamboyant manner, former President Donald Trump loves spinning a yarn about how he heroically sent critical water to fire-stricken Los Angeles, a tale that California's leaders allegedly refused to accept.
However, this narrative, as told at the White House on Thursday, is nothing but a fabrication.
The 2 billion gallons of water Trump dumped from two dams in California's agricultural heartland in January and February did not actually reach Los Angeles. Instead, the water was funneled into a dry lake basin further north in the Central Valley - quite a distance away from LA.
As Jeffrey Mount, a senior fellow in the Water Policy Center at the Public Policy Institute of California think tank, highlighted, "Not a single droplet of the water released into the Tulare Basin by the Army Corps of Engineers at the White House's behest made it to Southern California." Brent Haddad, an environmental studies professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, added, "The only way that water got to LA is if someone driving by happened to get mud on their tires."
This is due to the fact that the dams Trump had ordered opened by the US Army Corps of Engineers lack a direct link to the California-run State Water Project that serves Southern California. The federally run Central Valley Project, in turn, "doesn't serve Los Angeles" and "stops near Bakersfield," as Tara Gallegos, a spokesperson for California Governor Gavin Newsom, explained on Thursday.
Water policy experts and local water authorities widely viewed Trump's order to release water from the dams as wasteful, potentially damaging to farmers, and poorly planned - and potentially catastrophic if the Army Corps had released the 5 billion gallons Trump initially intended, warn experts, which could have led to devastating flooding.
CNN sought comment from the White House on why the president continuously peddles this false narrative about the water releases reaching Los Angeles and why he’s repeated the misguided claim multiple times that some of California's water comes from Canada. White House spokesperson Anna Kelly responded by scolding CNN, criticizing Newsom's fire preparedness efforts, and insisting that Trump took action to save people from further disaster.
Gallegos concluded, "It appears the federal administration suffers from some geographical confusion."
'I Conquered Los Angeles'
Throughout his White House address on Thursday, Trump told reporters a baffling tale: "I invaded Los Angeles! I had to invade it. I conquered Los Angeles, and we opened up the water, and now the water is flooding; they don't know what to do. They were sending it out to the sea for environmental reasons."
This story doesn't make much sense, even using "invaded" as a hyperbole. Nothing about the water releases actually involved Los Angeles.
The Army Corps of Engineers division responsible for managing the dams from which the water was discharged was shocked by the White House release order, two sources close to the matter revealed to CNN's Ella Nilsen. A memo obtained by both The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times showed that the Army Corps realized the water "could not be delivered to Southern California directly" and "would remain in the Tulare Lake Basin" without California's water department's assistance to utilize a seldomly used connection to the state's water system. California's water department confirmed it could not assist on such short notice, the memo stated.
When asked about the White House's awareness of this, they noted that the connection exists and was employed in 2023, during which California's water department stated it was the first time it had been used since 2006. However, it wasn't employed this time, so Trump's repeated assertions that the water flowed to Los Angeles remain unfounded.
Trump issued the water release order after faultlessly accusing Los Angeles of not receiving enough water for wildfire prevention or firefighting efforts. California's Democratic leadership, he claimed, were intent on keeping water in the northern part of the state to aid an obscure fish species, while the Los Angeles area had more than sufficient water to combat the January wildfires, although there were occasional local water shortages in some neighborhoods under the intense demand of the ongoing battle.
When the Army Corps of Engineers started releasing the water on January 30, firefighters had already achieved 100% containment on the January wildfires in Los Angeles. Fire officials confirmed that 100% containment was reached on January 31, while the unrelated federal water releases continued until February 2.
- The water discharged from the dams, as ordered by Trump, did not reach Los Angeles; instead, it was funneled into a dry lake basin further north in the Central Valley, according to Jeffrey Mount and Brent Haddad.
- The dams Trump ordered opened lack a direct link to the California-run State Water Project that serves Southern California, and the federally run Central Valley Project, which the water was funneled into, "doesn't serve Los Angeles" and "stops near Bakersfield," as Tara Gallegos explained.
- Trump's repeated assertions that the water flowed to Los Angeles remain unfounded, as the Army Corps of Engineers realized the water "could not be delivered to Southern California directly" and "would remain in the Tulare Lake Basin" without California's water department's assistance.
