Jimmy Kimmel Douses Trump’s Claim Military ‘Turned On’ California’s Water
Late night host Jimmy Kimmel dampened claims by President Donald Trump that the U.S. military entered California to release a large amount of water from the northern part of the state to fight the Los Angeles fires.
In a Monday post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “The United States Military just entered the Great State of California and, under Emergency Powers, TURNED ON THE WATER flowing abundantly from the Pacific Northwest, and beyond.”
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“The days of putting a Fake Environmental Argument, over PEOPLE, are over,” he declared. “Enjoy the water, California!!!”
The following day, Kimmel called out Trump over this false claims. “Do you think he actually believes this happened?” Kimmel pondered during his monologue. “Or does he think we’re so dumb, we believe it happened? It’s incredible. The minute I saw the post, I said — I ran to my sink, I turned it on. Water came just gushing out. I let it spray. I danced around like I was Shakira or something.”
“Whether or not the U.S. military entered California and turned the water on is not a matter of debate,” he said. “This is not liberal versus conservative. It didn’t happen, OK? But no one calls him on it.”
Trump visited California on Friday and continued to falsely insist that Governor Gavin Newsom and other state officials refused to supply Southern California with water from up north amid the fires.
Soon after Trump’s post, the California Department of Water Resources denied his claim: “The military did not enter California. The federal government restarted federal water pumps after they were offline for maintenance for three days. State water supplies in Southern California remain plentiful.”
On Sunday, Trump ordered the federal government to override the state’s water resource policies to deliver more water and hydropower to the Los Angeles region. According to Reuters, a spokesperson for Newsom said that the president’s directive would not have made a difference in California’s battle against the fires as the state receives a majority of its water from other sources and does not have a shortage.
Hydrants in Los Angeles county ran dry as the water system in some areas did not have the ability to deliver large amounts of water over several hours, Martin Adams, former general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power told the Los Angeles Times. Firefighters also said that rescue efforts were hindered by low water pressure.
“Trump is either unaware of how water is stored in California or is deliberately misleading the public,” said the governor’s spokesperson Tara Gallegos. “There is no imaginary spigot to magically make water appear at a wildfire, despite what Trump claims.”
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