Trump Responds

Donald Trump really tore into Gov. Gavin Newsom and California’s leftist politicians yesterday, and he was immediately attacked for politicizing the tragedy. The fact is that in 2020, Trump issued a federal memorandum directing Newsom to take certain steps to retain more water and to stop making absurd excuses for not enacting rational policies.

Trump warned that California was on the fast track to disaster unless Newsom took responsibility. But the liberal governor immediately ran to a liberal court and got an order saying he could ignore Trump. And now Los Angeles is burning, and the fire hydrants are running dry.

In fact, Trump’s concerns about California’s poor wildfire management go back to at least 2018 when he confronted Newsom about it while touring the damage from the massive Camp Fire.

Trump told Newsom to look at policies in other countries that don’t have such massive, devastating wildfires and to stop obsessing over obscure fish like the delta smelt. Newsom never engaged Trump. He just stood there with the same blank stare as the mayor of Los Angeles. (See next item.)

Gov. Newsom believes manmade dangerous global warming is taking place. There’s a big national debate about that. But here’s his fundamental mistake: He has dedicated his governorship to stopping global warming, which is something he can’t accomplish as governor.

If one believes that dangerous global warming is taking place, your responsibility as governor is to mitigate the dangers to the citizens of your state. So, instead of telling people what they can and can’t drive, he should be pursuing water and forestry policies that reduce the danger to Californians as much as possible.