Gov. Gavin Newsom blasted President Donald Trump for spreading “misinformation” about water shortages during the California wildfires nearly a year after the disaster.
“It was hurricane force bulls— coming from Trump’s weaponized lies [and] disinformation, amplified by Elon Musk,” Newsom told MS NOW’s Jacob Soboroff in an interview posted to YouTube Monday.
The California Democrat’s remark came in response to a question referencing an X livestream last January in which Elon Musk asked firefighters whether water had run out in the Palisades but not in Malibu.
“My understanding — correct me if I’m wrong — in Malibu, along the coast, there was no shortage of water. In the Palisades, there was a shortage of water at some point, or is that not accurate?” Musk asked the fire command team.
“We were flowing an amount of water that the system couldn’t [handle] … it was overbearing just because of how much water these firefighters were utilizing,” an official replied.
Musk ended the stream shortly after.
Newsom shared the exchange in his own X post at the time, saying Musk was “exposed by firefighters.”
At the time of the fires, Trump, Musk and many of their allies were repeatedly critical of California policies and officials’ — especially Newsom’s — handling of the crisis.
Musk, for instance, also wrote in an X post: “Climate change risk is real, just much slower than alarmists claim. The immense loss of homes in LA is primarily due to: 1. Nonsensical overregulation that prevented creating fire breaks and doing brush clearing. 2. Bad governance at the state and local level that resulted in a shortage of water.”
Trump, who was president-elect at the time, alleged in a Truth Social post that water shortages were largely due to Newsom’s failure to “sign the water restoration declaration” that would have “allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way.”
Trump’s remarks prompted Newsom’s office to fire back, insisting that the alleged declaration was “pure fiction.”
“For the first time in history, we have a president that is promoting [misinformation] in the middle of these disasters, in the middle of emergencies where lives are quite literally on the line, and people are buying the bulls—, hook-line and sinker,” Newsom told Soboroff, reflecting on how many people believed Trump’s claims.
When reached for comment, the White House provided the folllowing statement to Fox News Digital:
“President Trump’s historic leadership following the LA wildfires led to the fastest hazardous debris removal operation in history. This has played a critical role in helping communities recover from tragedy.
“But while President Trump expedited the process, Gavin Newscum’s and Karen Bass’ lack of preparation made the disaster worse than it needed to be – they drained the Santa Ynez Reservoir and failed to prepare to utilize pumps and aqueducts. Then, they slowed the recovery process with permit approvals dragging on despite the President’s tremendous efforts to help the overall process.”
Fox News’ Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.
