At a recent campaign rally in southern California — which recent electoral precedent suggests will go strongly for Democratic pick Kamala Harris in this year’s election, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump threatened the withholding of aid for the state to deal with wildfires. He threatened that refusal in the event (assuming Trump is president) that California state authorities don’t go along with what Trump apparently wants for the state’s water distribution.
“@realDonaldTrump shows us exactly who he is—threatening life saving disaster aid to achieve his political goals: “We’ll force it down his throat we’ll say Gavin if you don’t do it we’re not giving you any of that fire money we send you,”” said a response from California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom posted to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “This man is sick.”
Rolling Stone said in their recap that Trump didn’t even put forward a specific plan for the water situation in California while at that rally, saying he made those comments “without actually proposing how he’d manage to solve the problem.” California sometimes experiences serious drought.
Elsewhere, Trump continues to accuse — in the face of ongoing rebuttals — Democratic authorities at the state and federal levels of severely mishandling the ongoing response to the recent hurricanes Helene and Milton. A former member of his administration — Olivia Troye, who now supports Kamala Harris — claimed that disaster relief was up in the air under Trump himself.
“Let me be very clear: As a Homeland Security Advisor in the Trump White House, I witnessed firsthand how Donald Trump politicized disaster relief, leaving devastated Americans waiting for help. Leaders across the country & government were calling my office, desperate for action as Trump failed them in moments of crisis,” Troye posted online.