In an interview with Fox News personality Sean Hannity, Donald Trump threatened to withhold aid from Los Angeles to deal with the devastating wildfires unless the state changes its water policies.
“I don’t think we should give California anything until they let water flow down,” he told Hannity.
Trump was referring to the notion that Northern California has refused to allow water to flow in order to preserve several species of fish.
He also railed against the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), saying the agency "gets in the way of everything."
“I’d rather see the states take care of their own problems,” he said. He hinted at FEMA reform, saying there's “going to be a whole big discussion very shortly.”
On Wednesday at a press conference, Trump explained why California needs to reform its water policies. He said a valve could bring almost limitless amounts of water from Northern California to the Los Angeles basin.
"They have a valve, think of a sink but multiply it by many thousands of times the size of it, it's massive. And you turn it back toward Los Angeles. Why aren't they doing it? They either have a death wish, they're stupid, or there's something else going on that we don't understand," Trump said.
Washington Post:
Trump is scheduled to visit California to review the damage from this month’s devastating fires this week, but he said he was not yet sure if he would meet with Newsom while there. He derided Newsom for his response to questions about why the country’s largest state has failed to contain the flames, which have killed at least 27 people and left 22 more unaccounted for.
Newsom wrote a letter to Trump earlier this month asking him to come see the devastation firsthand and to meet with firefighters and families affected by the fires. Newsom’s team has not heard back from Trump’s team, but the California governor plans to meet him as he steps off Air Force One, aides to Newsom said.
In addition to being forced to shake hands with Gavin Newsom (maybe he won't), Trump will visit hurricane-ravaged western North Carolina. Life is slowly getting back to normal in the state as relief efforts continue.
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Trump had North Carolina in mind when he told Hannity he wanted to make drastic reforms to disaster relief.
"FEMA has not done their job for the last four years. You know, I had FEMA working really well. We had hurricanes in Florida. We had Alabama tornadoes. But unless you have certain types of leadership, it's really, it gets in the way. And FEMA is going to be a whole big discussion very shortly, because I'd rather see the states take care of their own problems," Trump told Hannity.
Fox News:
FEMA came under the nation's microscope last year when Hurricane Helene ripped through North Carolina, devastating residents as it wiped out homes and businesses and killed more than 100 people. FEMA and the Biden administration faced fierce backlash for its handling of the emergency, while Trump accused the agency of obstructing relief efforts in Republican areas.
"The Democrats don't care about North Carolina. What they've done with FEMA is so bad. FEMA is a whole 'nother discussion, because all it does is complicate everything," he said.
"So I'm stopping on Friday. I'm stopping in North Carolina, first stop, because those people were treated very badly by Democrats. And I'm stopping there. We're going to get that thing straightened out because they're still suffering from a hurricane from months ago," Trump said.
FEMA has become hopelessly politicized after the revelation that at least one FEMA supervisor was ordering workers to skip houses in Florida sporting Trump signs following the hurricane.
More than that, an agency that was created in the 1970s to help disaster victims fill out forms and deal with the federal bureaucracy has become a gargantuan, bloated, overbearing monstrosity. States would be able to deliver aid more quickly and target those who need it most.
