After the devastating 2025 fires in Los Angeles, Trump ordered billions of gallons of water to be released from California reservoirs.
Not only would this water not be used for firefighting, as the fires had already been contained, but the water would end up 200 miles from Los Angeles without a plan for getting it the rest of the way.
Further, water infrastructure would not be able to handle such a large flow. Due to the courage of local officials standing up to Trump – with only one hour of notice – the unnecessary release was slowed down and reduced enough as to not flood farms in the region.
Not only was this a senseless release of vast quantities of water in a drought-stricken state, but ecological catastrophe was narrowly avoided.