President Trump repeated his vague threat to withhold federal wildfire aid to California over forest management issues, tweeting Sunday: “No more.”
Trump said in a three-tweet string he had told Gov. Gavin Newsom that “he must ‘clean’ his forest floors” and added, “Every year, as the fire’s rage & California burns, it is the same thing — and then he comes to the Federal Government for $$$ help. No more.”
Trump made a nearly identical threat last year after the Camp Fire in Butte County, the state’s most destructive wildfire ever. Then, Trump said that “forest management is so poor” and tweeted, “Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!”
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In January, Trump said he had ordered the federal government to halt relief funds for California wildfires unless “they get their act together.”
The president later signed a disaster aid package that allowed Californians recovering from wildfires in 2017 and 2018 to apply for up to $12 billion in federal help, including farm assistance, highway money and flood infrastructure.
Newsom has praised the federal response to the Kincade Fire and other recent California wildfires. After the Federal Emergency Management Agency approved help in firefighting efforts against two Southern California fires last week, Newsom tweeted, “Thank you, @realDonaldTrump.”
On Sunday, Newsom tweeted his reply to Trump’s latest threat: “You don’t believe in climate change. You are excused from this conversation.”
Trump’s tweets have consistently failed to note that more than half of forested land in California is under federal control. Experts also note that forest management is just one of many factors that can affect wildfires’ severity.
Many of the blazes that have devastated California since 2017 have been brush fires, not forest fires, and many ran through large swaths of private land, including the Camp Fire.
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