As wildfires continue to devastate Los Angeles County, forcing residents to flee for safety, a resurfaced video of Donald Trump discussing California’s fire management policies has gone viral.
The clip, from a three-month-old appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, features Trump’s sharp criticism of California’s environmental policies and inadequate forest maintenance. With three major wildfires raging and no containment in sight, Trump’s comments are now being reconsidered in the context of the ongoing crisis.
In the podcast, Trump addressed California’s failure to build water reservoirs and manage its forests, which he claimed were crucial in preventing catastrophic wildfires.
“They said, ‘We have no water,’” Trump told Rogan. “I said, do you have a drought? ‘No, we don’t have a drought.’ I said, why do you have no water? ‘Because the water isn’t allowed to flow down.’ It’s got a natural flow from Canada all the way up north, more water than they could ever use. And in order to protect a tiny little fish, the water up north gets routed into the Pacific Ocean. Millions and millions of gallons of water gets poured.”
Trump’s remarks underscore a long-standing frustration with environmental regulations that aim to protect the delta smelt, a small fish native to California’s waterways, putting the species over the needs of Californians — a mistake being borne out again as massive fires sweep across the state causing tens of billions in damage.
“I could have water for all of that land, water for your forests,” Trump continued. “You know your forests are dry as a bone.” He explained that simple maintenance measures, such as clearing deadfall and raking leaves, could save billions in annual fire damage.
“Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way,” Trump wrote.
He then shredded Newsom for prioritizing the fish over human safety, saying, “He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt… but didn’t care about the people of California. Now the ultimate price is being paid.”
Others have piled on Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass as the fires spread and consume more acreage.
That includes actress Sarah Michelle Gellar, who chastised Bass on Tuesday as the Palisades Fire burned in Los Angeles.
“City of LA you want everyone to evacuate yet you have complete gridlock and not one traffic cop on the roads helping,” Gellar wrote on Instagram stories with tags to the official social media accounts for the City of Los Angeles and Bass.
Former “Dancing with the Stars” professional dancer Valentin Chmerkovskiy also took to social media Wednesday, writing, “5th largest economy on the planet. Firefighters didn’t have enough water pressure to do their jobs?! Are you joking me?! The taxes we pay for 3rd world infrastructure is unbelievable?! Come on.”
Actress Sara Foster wrote on X, “We pay the highest taxes in California. Our fire hydrants were empty. Our vegetation was overgrown, brush not cleared. Our reservoirs were emptied by our governor because tribal leaders wanted to save fish. Our fire department budget was cut by our mayor. But thank god drug addicts are getting their drug kits. @MayorOfLA @GavinNewsom RESIGN. Your far left policies have ruined our state. And also our party.”
Celebrity fitness trainer Jillian Michaels recalled losing her home in the 2018 Woolsey Fire as she also took to X to criticize California’s leadership.
“The mayor is apparently in Ghana,” she wrote. “The fire departments budget was apparently cut by 17 mil. And someone made the decision to not refill some of the reservoirs – now some fire hydrants are dry. Leadership in California is beyond negligent. This is completely unacceptable.”
