Fact-checking Trump’s claims California governor is to blame for wildfires

euronews (in English)

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."

Transcript

00:00Fact-checking Donald Trump's claims about the California wildfires.

00:08The deadly wildfires in California have sparked a political spat between President-elect Donald Trump

00:14and the Democrat governor of the state of California, Gavin Newsom.

00:19In this Truth Social post, Trump claims Newsom failed to sign a water restoration declaration

00:26that would have secured additional water supply to the affected region, suggesting this hindered firefighting efforts.

00:33Newsom's office responded by pointing out that such a document never existed.

00:37Trump's team says he was referring to his 2019 proposal to redirect water from the northern Californian delta

00:46to farms and urban areas further south, a proposal Newsom's administration challenged in court

00:53due to concerns over endangered species in the delta.

00:57But several experts have said Trump's water diversion plans would not have had any impact

01:02on the supply of water available for firefighting efforts.

01:06Trump has also said that there is no water in fire hydrants in the affected areas.

01:12This is partly true.

01:14The LA mayor has said that at one point last week, 20% of fire hydrants went dry

01:20with the affluent LA suburb of Palisades most affected.

01:24Governor Newsom has ordered an independent investigation,

01:27saying that while the hydrants are not designed to extinguish such widespread fires,

01:32the lack of water could have impaired efforts to protect some homes.

01:36Finally, Trump has claimed that there is no money in FEMA, the government agency for emergency management.

01:44FEMA, however, says it has $27 billion in its disaster relief fund

01:49after a temporary funding bill was passed.

01:52While this may not be enough to cover California's needs,

01:56Trump's claim that there is no money left in the pot is unfounded.

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