Washington, Jan 24 (EFE). – United States President Donald Trump said Friday that California must implement two key changes to access federal aid for reconstruction after the fires: requiring voter identification and changing its water management policies.
“I want to see two things in Los Angeles. Voter ID, so that the people have a chance to vote, and I want to see the water be released and come down into Los Angeles and throughout the state,” Trump told reporters in North Carolina, where he was touring hurricane recovery efforts.
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office responded with a fact check on the state’s voting laws, noting that several other states do not require voter ID. It also said the city could pump as much water as it did during Trump’s first term (2017-2021).
“Conditioning aid for American citizens is wrong,” the governor’s office posted on social media.
Trump has been criticizing Newsom’s response to the fires for weeks, and on Friday he again repeated false claims that state officials were limiting the water flow.
Since the fires began on Jan. 7, Trump has falsely claimed that the water flow restrictions were due to the state’s attempts to protect fish, the Delta smelt, and falsely suggested turning a valve would be enough to solve the state’s water problems.
Trump’s comments refer to a 2020 legal challenge by Newsom to a plan to send more water from Northern California to farmers in the state’s Central Valley agricultural hub, saying he was trying to “protect highly endangered fish species that are near extinction” in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
However, there is no direct link between the Sacramento Delta, which is separated from the city by a mountain range, and Los Angeles’ water supply limits, which depend on local logistical factors.
Hours after his inauguration on Monday, Trump urged his istration to outline a plan to deliver more water to California’s Central Valley and densely populated cities in Southern California.
On Wednesday, in an interview on Fox Network, he threatened to withhold federal aid from California if its leaders don’t change the state’s water policies.
Trump’s demands on voter ID are part of a demand by sectors of the Republican Party that have been seeking for years to require a photo ID to vote, although the US does not have a national ID.
Republicans argue that an ID is key to preventing voter fraud, Democrats claim that the requirement would reduce participation, especially among people with fewer economic resources, since the most common form of identification is a driver’s license, and not all citizens have one.
Currently, 36 states have laws that require some form of identification in order to vote at the polls.
The remaining 14 states, including California and the District of Columbia, use other methods to the identity of voters, such as comparing signatures, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures. EFE
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