MAKING A SPLASH

Trump Ramps Up His California Water Fight by Bizarrely Thanking Himself

The self-gratitude came a day after state officials denied President Trump’s claim he sent in the military to “turn on” water supplies.

President Donald Trump is doubling down on his claim that he “turned on the water” in California with a bizarre social media post thanking himself. “The water is flowing, big time, in Northern California. The long empty reservoirs will soon be full. Thank you President Trump!!!” he wrote Tuesday night on Truth Social. A day earlier, he claimed the U.S. military had entered California and “TURNED ON THE WATER flowing abundantly from the Pacific Northwest.” The state’s Department of Water Resources quickly shot that down, saying the military “did not enter California” and clarifying that the federal government had restarted its own water pumps after taking them offline for maintenance for three days. California has two main aqueduct systems: the State Water Project managed by the state and the Central Valley Project managed by the federal government. The Army Corps of Engineers manages 17 CVP dams. As deadly wildfires ravaged the Los Angeles area this month, Trump has accused California Governor Gavin Newsom of holding back state water supplies—a claim that Newsom and state agencies both rejected. “Many of the state’s largest reservoirs are currently at or above their historic average storage levels for this time of year,” Newsom wrote in an X post earlier this month.

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Janna Brancolini

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