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‘RIDICULOUS BLUNDER’: TRUMP WADES INTO CALIFORNIA’S WATER WARS
– AND STRIKES SOME OF HIS STRONGEST SUPPORTERS  
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Gabrielle Canon
February 11, 2025
The Guardian
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_ Billions of gallons of irrigation water were wasted under Trump’s
orders in what now appears to be a political stunt _

An irrigation ditch in East Orosi, California, on 23 January 2021.,
Max Whittaker/The Guardian

 

Under orders from Donald Trump, billions of gallons of irrigation
water were laid waste in California
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agricultural hub this month, a move that left water experts shocked
and local officials scrambling.

The water, stored in two reservoirs operated by the army corps of
engineers, is a vital source for many farms and ranches in the
state’s sprawling and productive San Joaquin valley during the
driest times of the year. It will be especially important in the
coming months as the region braces for another brutally hot summer
with sparse supplies.

The reservoirs are also among the few the US president can control
directly.
Staged to give weight to Trump’s widely debunked claims that flows
could have helped Los Angeles
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month’s devastating firestorm and to show that he holds some power
over California’s water, he ordered the army corps to flood the
channels. Less than an hour of notice was reportedly given to water
authorities down-river who rushed to prepare for the unexpected
release, which threatened to inundate nearby communities.

The move is just the latest in a series of misinformed attempts
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Trump has made to wade into California’s water wars, adding new
challenges and conflicts over the state’s essential and increasingly
scarce water resources. But in what now appears to be just a political
stunt, Trump has struck some of his strongest supporters. Many
counties across California’s rural Central valley – home to much
of its roughly $59bn agricultural industry – backed Trump in the
last election, forming a red strip at the heart
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of the blue state.

“It is almost mind-boggling that this has happened,” said Thomas
Holyoke, a professor of political science and water expert at
California [[link removed]] State
University, Fresno, calling the act a “ridiculous blunder”.

Experts, who were left scratching their heads in the aftermath, have
found no justification for the order. The reservoirs were not at risk
of overflowing and irrigation is not necessary during the wetter
winter months. These releases also did not support threatened
ecosystems such as those in the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta, where
contentious debates continue about flows and diversions.

Some have suggested the flows will help bolster groundwater stores,
“but a lot of that water will end up evaporating,” said Holyoke.
“It’s just going to be water lost – and they know it.”

‘Purely a stunt’

Governed by agreements between an array of stakeholders and close
coordination between federal and local officials, releases from these
reservoirs are typically well-planned. Lake Kaweah and Lake Success,
the two reservoirs in Tulare county, are part of a sprawling network
of channels that do not flow to the ocean or connect to the aqueduct
serving the southern part of the state.

The water held within them is also largely spoken for. Its
distribution isn’t often contentious.

 
But Trump, it seems, saw it differently.

“Everybody should be happy about this long fought Victory!” he
said in a post
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Truth Social the day the release was ordered, boasting that he opened
a flow for 5.2bn gallons of water alongside a photo of a nondescript
waterway.

Acting quickly, local authorities were able to convince federal
officials to bring that total down to 2bn, which was released over
three days.

[a pool of water ]
A full pool of water behind Schafer Dam forming Lake Success on the
Tule River in the Central valley during a winter storm in Tulare
county, California, on 21 March 2023. Photograph: Patrick T
Fallon/AFP/Getty Images

But Trump’s rhetoric around the issue hasn’t shifted. He has made
several false statements about water in California and his ability to
direct it including claims that he sent the US military
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to turn on the water in the aftermath of the deadly fires, his clear
misunderstanding about where water supplies originate from and
distribute to, and his allusion to a simple valve that can be turned
to control water supply.

He posted again
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thanking the army corps of engineers “for their LOVE of our Country,
and SPEED in getting this Emergency DONE! [sic]” saying that water
was “heading to farmers throughout the State, and to Los Angeles”,
even as experts repeatedly debunked this claim.

“Those releases had absolutely zero to do with anything to do in Los
Angeles,” said Gregory Pierce, a water policy expert and the
director of the UCLA Water
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adding that this also did not benefit anyone in the central valley.
“This was a stunt purely so Trump could say that he did something
and released the water.”

Few have been willing to admonish the administration for the move.
Support for Trump and hopes that he will aid agriculture with its
water woes is still strong in this region.

“I have a conservative mindset. I encourage the trigger-pulling
attitude, like: ‘Hey, let’s just get stuff done,’” Zack
Stuller, a farmer and president of the Tulare county farm bureau told
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Politico, admitting that the reservoir release was a little
nerve-wracking.
The bureau declined to comment to the Guardian, but sent a combined
statement from the four water management associations and districts,
which attempted to make sense of the puzzling and dangerous release.
In it, they said there would be “continued close coordination with
the Administration and the Army Corp of Engineers”.

Some locals who said they were deeply concerned about the act and its
outcome said they were afraid to speak out because their businesses
might be targeted by supporters of the administration.

While Trump continues to frame the action as evidence that he has
taken power over California water, he isn’t able to control much
water policy in the state, according to Pierce.

“The federal government of course matters for water in California,
but not that much,” he said, adding that’s why Trump ordered
releases where he was able to, even if they weren’t connected to the
overall problem he was claiming to address. The federal government
does play a role in funding big projects but “California’s been
left on an island with respect to federal support for quite some
time,” he said.

Trump has tried to exert more control through funding, especially now
that the state is depending on the federal government for aid in the
aftermath of the Los Angeles wildfires, now considered one of the most
costly natural disasters in history
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with damage estimates climbing above $250bn.

[a man pointing his finger at another man and a women ]
Donald Trump Melania Trump with California governor Gavin Newsom at
Los Angeles international airport, on 24 January. Photograph: Mark
Schiefelbein/AP

 
Trump has cast California’s governor Gavin Newsom
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the issue, but when it comes to water, and more specifically boosting
supplies of it for cities and agriculture, the two might already be on
the same page.

The state recently issued a fact-check on Trump’s claims, which
criticized him for spreading misinformation, but highlighted how
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supplies have increased since Trump’s first term.

Environmental advocates have long criticized the Delta Conveyance, a
controversial infrastructure project championed by Newsom that would
reroute more water to the south, which could get even more momentum
under a Trump presidency.

“The governor is actually aligned with Trump on this and I think
Trump has only recently figured that out,” Pierce said. “The cards
are certainly stacking up that that’s going to be pushed forward.”

That doesn’t mean that Trump’s misleading rhetoric won’t leave a
mess.

“President Trump comes blundering into this complex situation with
no understanding at all or no effort at understanding how it works,”
said Holyoke.

“California is trying to strike a delicate balance,” he added,
detailing the challenging and layered issues that come with
distributing essential resources to residents, the agricultural
industry, and declining ecosystems as the world warms and supplies run
short.

“Farmers in the valley are hurting from water cutbacks, there is no
question about that,” Holyoke said. “The answer isn’t to toss
all the laws and court orders aside and throw lots of water at
farmers. We simply need to find inventive ways to make the best use of
the water that we have.”

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* California Water; Trump and Newsom;
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