WASHINGTON (Reuters) – California on Tuesday denied President Donald Trump’s claim that the U.S. military entered the state to release more water in the wake of deadly wildfires.
In a Truth Social post late on Monday, Trump wrote: “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.”
California’s Department of Water Resources responded hours later.
“The military did not enter California. The federal government restarted federal water pumps after they were offline for maintenance for three days. State water supplies in Southern California remain plentiful,” the agency said early on Tuesday in an X post.
Trump, a Republican who visited California on Friday just days after taking office, has repeatedly made false claims that Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom and other state officials refused to provide water from northern areas to fight the fires.
On Sunday, he ordered the federal government to override the state of California’s water-management practices to bolster firefighting efforts.
The order directed 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, even if that conflicts with state or local laws.
A spokesperson for Newsom said that move would not have made a difference in the state’s firefighting efforts as the Los Angeles region gets most of its water from other sources and did not have a shortage.
Some hydrants in the Los Angeles area ran dry during the height of the wildfires, but local officials say that was because they were not designed to deal with such a massive disaster.
“Water supply has not hindered firefighting efforts. Reservoirs in California are at or above average storage levels for this time of year, thanks in part to years of proactive water management,” according to the California Association of Water Agencies, a statewide coalition of public water agencies.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
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