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.'
More from Rolling Stone
Trump Hates the Constitution
Selfies and a Standing Ovation: Sermon Taking on Trump Draws Supporters to D.C. Cathedral
Trump's First 10 Days Back in Power Were Uniquely Depraved. Don't Get Numb To It
'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.'
Best of Rolling Stone
Denzel Washington's Movies Ranked, From Worst to Best
70 Greatest Comedies of the 21st Century
Risky Business: Every Tom Cruise Film, Ranked – Updated
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Gold Turns Higher on Increased Uncertainty
Gold prices gain as comments from President Trump instill some new economic worries heading into the summer. Trump posted on his Truth Social account that China's President Xi was "extremely hard to make a deal with," and also demanded Fed Chair Jerome Powell lower interest rates.
The Hill
19 minutes ago
- The Hill
Doug Ford urges Canada's leader to ramp up tariffs on US
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is pressuring Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney to ramp up tariffs against the United States after President Trump doubled tariffs on steel and aluminum earlier this week. 'I highly recommended to the prime minister directly that we slap another 25 percent on top of our tariffs to equal President Trump's tariffs on our steel,' Ford said during his Wednesday appearance on CNN's 'Situation Room.' 'He has to, he has to start looking around the world at China and other locations that are taking Chinese steel and really stop the flow of steel. That's the problem,' Ford told host Wolf Blitzer. 'Canada is not the problem. Again. We purchased 30 billion, with a 'B,' of steel off the US, and that's going to come to an end real quick.' Trump signed the executive order to hike the tariffs on Tuesday. The measure went into effect on Wednesday and would levy steel and aluminum tariffs on almost all imports to the U.S.. The United Kingdom is exempt as it inked a trade deal with Washington last month. Canada has retaliated against the U.S. previously, slapping a 25 percent reciprocal tariff on U.S. aluminum and steel products. Carney, who met with Trump at the White House in early May, did not express readiness to implement Ford's suggestion. 'We will take some time, not much, some time because we are in intensive discussions right now with the Americans on the trading relationship,' Carney said to reporters on Wednesday, according to Politico. 'Those discussions are progressing. I would note that the American action is a global action. It's not one targeted in Canada, so we will take some time, but not more,' the prime minister said. Ontario is open to imposing its own countermeasures, according to Ford. When asked on Wednesday if willing to bring back the electricity surcharge, he told reporters that 'everything's on the table.' Ontario implemented a 25 percent extra charge on the electricity Canada exports to three U.S. states after Trump threatened to double tariffs on steel and aluminum. Ford eventually spoke to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and later suspended the tax impacting Michigan, New York and Minnesota.
Associated Press
19 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Inflation data threatened by government hiring freeze as tariffs loom
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Labor Department has cut back on the inflation data it collects because of the Trump administration's government hiring freeze, raising concerns among economists about the quality of the inflation figures just as they are being closely watched for the impact of tariffs. The department's Bureau of Labor Statistics, which produces the monthly consumer price index, the most closely watched inflation measure, said Wednesday that it is 'reducing sample in areas across the country' and stopped collecting price data entirely in April in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Provo, Utah. It also said it has stopped collecting data this month in Buffalo, New York. In an email that the BLS sent to economists, viewed by The Associated Press, the agency said that it 'temporarily reduced the number of outlets and quotes it attempted to collect due to a staffing shortage' in April. The reduced data collection 'will be kept in place until the hiring freeze is lifted.' President Donald Trump froze federal hiring on his first day in office and extended the freeze in April until late July, suggesting future inflation reports will also involve less data collection. The cutbacks have intensified worries among economists that government spending cuts could degrade the federal government's ability to compile key economic data on employment, prices, and the broader economy. The BLS also said last month that it will no longer collect wholesale prices in about 350 categories for its Producer Price Index, a measure of price changes before they reach the consumer. The cutbacks are also occurring at a time of heightened uncertainty about the economy and the impact of Trump's sweeping tariffs on hiring, growth and inflation. 'The PPI is cutting hundreds of indexes from production, and the CPI is now being constructed with less data,' Omair Sharif, chief economist at the consulting firm Inflation Insights, said in an email. 'That alone is worrying given that we're heading into the teeth of the tariff impact on prices.' Earlier this year, the Trump administration disbanded several advisory committees that worked with BLS and other statistical agencies on fine-tuning its data-gathering. The BLS said that the cutbacks 'have minimal impact' on the overall inflation data, but 'they may increase the volatility' of the reported prices of specific items. Alan Detmeister, an economist at UBS, an investment bank, said the cutbacks likely had little impact on April's inflation figures. But 'if these types of cuts continue, they will degrade the reliability and efficacy of these statistical agencies,' he said.
