What Trump Got Wrong About the LA Wildfires

President Trump is known for his social media rants. As the Los Angeles region experienced its worst wildfires, Trump posted misinformation on Truth Social, the social media company he founded. 

“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 posted. 

“There is no such document as the water restoration declaration – that is pure fiction,” California Governor Newsom’s office responded on X. “The Governor is focused on protecting people, not playing politics, and making sure firefighters have all the resources they need.”

Not content to state misinformation once, Trump posted again. He did the social media equivalent of screaming by posting in all caps to Governor Newsom, demanding he “RELEASE THE WATER FROM UP NORTH, MILLIONS OF GALLONS A DAY.” He also insisted that if Newsome released millions of gallons of water from northern California to the southern portions of the state, “YOU WOULD HAVE HAD NO FIRE PROBLEMS TODAY.”

Trump Makes the Situation Worse

California received unusual rainfall for two rain seasons before experiencing unusual dryness in the latter part of 2024. As a result, the LA area reservoirs were full when the wildfires started. However, that did not stop the Trump administration from ordering more than two billion gallons of water on January 24 to flow from the Terminus Dam at Lake Kaweah and the Schafer Dam at Schafer Lake. Both dams supply water to farmers and cities in the San Joaquin Valley. 

“There is, of course, no way to get it to Los Angeles,” said water scientist Peter Gleick.

Water managers received an hour’s warning from the U.S. Army Corp’s office in Sacramento that the water release would flow into two area rivers by the evening of January 24. Both rivers were at levels last seen during the 2023 floods, which destroyed homes and businesses. Winter is not when farmers need irrigation water but in the summer when temperatures soar past 100 degrees Fahrenheit and the humidity is low. Farmers worry they will not get the water they need in the summer. 

What Caused the LA Wildfires?

The wildfires that started on January 7, 2025, were the most destructive in the Los Angeles region. The consensus on the causes includes vegetation buildup, two very wet consecutive years, extreme drought, and hurricane-force Santa Ana winds. 

Wildfires feed on vegetation, and by the end of the summer in California, the vegetation becomes dry (dead fuels). By the start of the January wildfires, the dead fuel moisture was the sixth lowest on record for that date. Summer and fall in 2024 were very hot, leading to extremely dry vegetation. 

Climate Whiplash

California’s water year started on October 1, 2024. From then until late January 2025, the LA region experienced “extreme record or near-record dryness,” according to the National Integrated Drought Information System data. Warm Santa Ana winds increased dryness in the region. 

Santa Ana winds in January in coastal Southern California are normal. Santa Ana events with high-speed winds increase wildfire risk, but the biggest concern for wildfires is before November when significant rainfall typically occurs. There was no significant rainfall before January 7, which increased the risk of wildfire. 

Two very wet years in a row are unusual for the LA area. The rainfall totals for 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 were almost twice the average. All of that rain caused much more grass and chaparral than usual. The atmosphere, on average, has more water vapor as the earth warms, which causes strong storms to become more intense. It will happen again as experts project that atmospheric river storms in California will transport more water vapor as the climate warms. 

Climate change also played a role. A World Weather Attribution report projects that the conditions that caused the wildfires may occur on average once every 17 years. The current average temperature rise of 1.3 degrees Celsius increases the likelihood of these conditions by about 35 percent.