Trump posted on Truth Social, “One of the best and most beautiful parts of the United States of America is burning down to the ground. It's ashes and Gavin Newscum should resign. This is all his fault!!!”
Earlier in the day, as thousands of acres burned in and around Los Angeles, Trump blamed Newsom for refusing to sign a declaration allowing more water to flow into areas currently hit with fires.
He posted on Truth Social, "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 added, “He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn’t work!), but didn’t care about the people of California. Now the ultimate price is being paid. I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is to blame for this. On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, no firefighting planes. A true disaster!"
Wednesday morning, a video resurfaced on social media of Trump, during his first term in the White House, urging Newsom to clear brush from the forest floor.
Trump said at the time, "There's been a lot of study going on over the last little while, "and I will say I think you're gonna have—hopefully this is going to be the last of these because this was a really, really bad one. And I know that Gavin's committed, we're all committed, I'm committed to make sure that all of this is cleaned out and protected. You gotta take care of the floors. You know, the floors of the forests, very important."