The Trump-Newsom Fight Over an Alleged 'Water Restoration Declaration,' Explained

President-elect Donald Trump accused California Gov. Gavin Newsom of causing a water shortage during the January 2025 wildfires in Los Angeles County by refusing to sign a "water restoration declaration" in order to protect "an essentially worthless fish called a smelt."

Newsom's office said such a document never existed.

It's true that Newsom and the California attorney general sued the Trump administration in 2020 over a water management plan that, according to the state, failed to protect certain endangered species, including the delta smelt. That program was never put into place and the Biden administration subsequently approved its own plans for the waterways, with support from Newsom. 

Experts said discussions of water management programs in Northern California have "nothing to do with the fires in Southern California." Official data shows that most of the state's reservoirs were at or above historical average levels before the January 2025 fires.