THE SET-UP: President Donald Trump is no run-of-the-mill liar. He is an accomplished manager of perceptions and the architect of an entertaining alternate reality. He is rarely inspired to lie by shame or guilt. He often lies to divide and to conquer. He lies to convince and cajole. But he mostly lies to sell you something. If he has a personal mantra it must be the famous “Always Be Closing” motivational harangue from Glengarry Glen Ross.
Transactional Trump is always closing a deal because he’s always open for business.
Sometimes he’s the only one who *knows* a deal is being negotiated, but everything he says is a sales pitch. Maybe that’s why he lies so profusely and so unabashedly. Lies and salesmanship are notoriously intertwined. His endless stream of lies are a rolling invitation to buy what he’s selling. That, in turn, constantly forces us to either embrace or reject his current pitch.
The people who embrace him largely fall into two camps—those who know he’s lying, but choose to compromise their values because he’s convinced them that the ends justify the means … and there are those who use his lies as an invitation to suspend disbelief and enter his carnival-like alternative to reality. Either way, Trump can get away with shooting somebody in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue. Some are accessories after the fact and others are convinced that he didn’t pull the trigger.
One way or the other, he’s got you. He can say anything, however outlandish, without paying a political price. His supporters are fully-vested. They’re “ride-or-die.” And that makes him a formidable campaign opponent. It also makes him a potent denier of vexing realties like climate change. Although, he doesn’t simply deny anthropogenic climate change. He nullifies it. He expunges it from the record. I’m not only talking about language being jettisoned by various Governmental agencies. He eliminates it from the conversation. He never has to explain his position.
That immunity was on display at the end of his first week back in office. That’s when he made his same-day visits to flood-ravaged North Carolina and fire-ravaged Southern California. Trump explored the aftermath of two catastrophic events linked to our rapidly warming climate, but he didn’t have to bother denying climate change’s responsibility. The rapidly warming climate never actually came up. I liveblogged his events in both NC and SoCal and no one challenged him on the issue. It didn’t matter that the evidence was strewn all around him.
For Trump, anthropogenic climate change simply doesn’t exist. And that means it doesn’t exist for millions of voters who, thanks to expediency or delusion, are exempted from thinking about their own participation in polluting the climate. They are also exempt from having to do anything about it. The same goes for a variety of climate polluting companies and ideological interests. It didn’t matter that he was visiting the changing climate’s most spectacular disasters. The fact that it didn’t come up when it was seemingly unavoidable is the ultimate act of denial.
But it doesn’t end there.
Because he was also selling and closing and, therefore, lying.
The big lie he told/sold in LA replaced “weather whiplash” and the impact of a severe drought year with a fanciful tale you just have to read to believe:
“You have millions of gallons of water pouring down from the north with the snow caps in Canada and all pouring down and they have essentially a very large faucet. You turn the faucet and it takes one day to turn it. It's massive, it's as big as the wall of that building … and you turn that and all of that water goes … aimlessly into the Pacific and if they turned it back, all of that water would come right down here and right into Los Angeles."
This previously unknown hydrogeological phenomenon was news to the The Canadian Press, so they turned to Alain Pietroniro, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Calgary. When was asked about Trump’s discovery of “a large faucet” pouring water out of Canada, Professor Peitroniro said, “there is no infrastructure, let alone a water system with ‘a large faucet,’ that would directly transport water from Canadian snowcaps to California to help ease its problems.”
Obviously befuddled, the Professor confessed, "I don't really understand what he's saying."
There was a time when the Professor’s response might’ve mattered. It might’ve generated outrage and ridicule and genuine concern about the mental acuity of the liar. Then again, maybe there wasn’t a time … because I cannot think of another successful politician who’d tell whole-cloth whoppers like that one, let alone garish lies about pet-eating Haitians or condoms for Hamas or mentally-deficient air traffic controllers. There have been plenty of lies told by Presidents, but I cannot recall a President who’d visit a deadly disaster and spin a web of lies about the cause of the tragedy, even as the fires were still burning.
All of his lies linked the fires to human error and to the supposed mismanagement of his mythological font of endless water that, he claimed, could’ve inundated the parched landscape of LA … and even “turned the tumbleweeds green.” Of course, he’d warned all along about wasting California’s wealth of Canadian water … but the “radical environmentalists” would rather see LA burn that deny a crappy little fish somewhere to swim. He was blaming people based on made-up evidence … while ignoring the evidence of a growing crisis that threatens more and more Americans.
He cemented his lies with a staged release of a couple billion gallons of stored water that inundated unprepared farmers located a couple hundred miles away from the fires … that, as it happened, had since been contained. But no one really cares because the reality is that reality is now just fodder for debate and, as strange as it sounds, arguing on reality’s behalf is a losing proposition. Same goes for a peer-reviewed science. Or an evidence-based analysis. Or, in the case of the LA Fires or Hurricane Helene, your own two eyes. There is no fact-check that will finally break the spell. You see, Trump is more than just a living denial mechanism … he’s also a permission slip.
His impunity is your impunity.
And let’s face it … what’s more appealing:
Reckoning with an ever-hotter future that can only be slowed or partially mitigated through lifestyle adjustments?
Or permission to flash your middle finger at ideological scolds who want to take away your showerhead, your stove, your steak and your car?
Trump has simplified climate change into a binary choice between sacrifice and gluttony. And he sends his people home with a manufactured “California-style” scapegoat and a splashy photo op at the end of a phony victory lap.
When he wins, they win.
Reality cannot compete with that perception. Perception just becomes reality … save for the Central Valley farmers who planned on having a couple billion gallons of water to help them get through the climate-altered dogs days of Summer. - jp
TITLE: 2.2 billion gallons of water flowed out of California reservoirs because of Trump’s order to open dams
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/03/climate/trump-california-water-dams-reservoirs/index.html
EXCERPT: The US Army Corps of Engineers opened two dams on Friday in Central California and let roughly 2.2 billion gallons of water flow out of reservoirs, after President Donald Trump ordered the release with the misguided intent to send water to fire-ravaged Southern California.
Trump celebrated the move in posts to Truth Social post on Friday and Sunday, declaring, “the water is flowing in California,” and adding the water was “heading to farmers throughout the State, and to Los Angeles.”
There are two major problems, water experts said: The newly released water will not flow to Los Angeles, and it is being wasted by being released during the wet winter season.
“They were holding extra water in those reservoirs because of the risk that it would be a dry summer,” said Heather Cooley, director of research for California water policy organization the Pacific Institute. “This puts agriculture at risk of insufficient water during the summer months.”
On Friday, Trump posted that 1.6 billion gallons was being released adding that “in 3 days, it will be 5.2 billion gallons.”
About 2.2 billion gallons were released from Friday to Sunday, local water districts said in a statement released Monday. That water was discharged into the dry lakebed of Tulare Lake, according to a letter from Sen. Alex Padilla to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
California Department of Water Resources director Karla Nemeth told reporters that there was little coordination between federal officials and the state and local water managers for the Army Corps releases at the Terminus Dam at Lake Kaweah and Schafer Dam at Lake Success.
“These reservoirs were federal reservoirs, and the state of California was not part of the decision making in this instance,” Nemeth said. “We traditionally have a high degree of coordination at the operational level, which really wasn’t a part of this decision.”
Los Angeles’ water sources are completely separated from the water system that Lake Kaweah and Lake Success supply. That water system flows into the agriculture-heavy Central Valley — where large farms grow nuts, citrus and grasses for animal feed, among other crops. The water-stressed region is heavily reliant on groundwater and winter precipitation stored in state reservoirs to irrigate crops.
The US Army Corps of Engineers and the White House did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.
TITLE: Central California farmers raise concerns after Trump orders dam water release
https://abc30.com/post/central-california-farmers-raise-concerns-trump-orders-dam-water-release/15862080/
EXCERPT: The flow of water being released downstream out of Terminus Dam at Lake Kaweah has slowed considerably since Saturday.
An executive order from President Trump directed the US Army Corps of Engineers to release water, in part to help fight LA wildfires.
But word of a water release out of both Terminus Dam at Lake Kaweah and Schater Dam at Lake Success came as a shock to many.
South Valley farmers weren't happy to see the outward flow. That stored water represents their spring and summer supply, and irrigating crops isn't their priority right now.
"There's enough snow above Lake Kaweah to, essentially if it all melted off, fill it halfway full. So the idea to release any was questionable," Zack Stuller with the Tulare County Farm Bureau said.
Stuller says farmers usually get a 10-day to two-week heads up when water will become available.
"But the fact to release that much that quick where we can't use it was bizarre," Stuller said.
Water scientist Peter Gleick disputes the president's notion that the water can be used to help fight the Southern California wildfires.
"Some of that water is going to flow downstream. It’s going to flow into the Tulare basin. There is, of course, no way to get it to Los Angeles. Those are disconnected," Gleick said.
"It's literally, physically impossible to get the water out of Lake Kaweah or Terminus Dam to LA," Stuller said.
Farmers say the sudden release made it difficult to try to move the water into basins for future use.
"This is the time of year when we're trying to store water in our reservoirs for the very hot, dry summer that looks like it's coming," Gleick said.
TITLE: Expert describes Trump-ordered Northern California water release as "dumb"
https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/expert-describes-trump-ordered-northern-california-water-release-dumb/
EXCERPTS: "Apparently, Mr. Trump felt that that was going to help Southern California," said water strategist Barry Nelson. "Number one, those rivers aren't connected to Southern California. That water will not get to Southern California. Number two, that's water that the Corps was holding for farmers to irrigate with next summer. Releasing it now, when it's raining doesn't do anybody good, except it creates the very real risk of potential flooding."
Nelson has his own reasons for being angry about this. He is policy consultant for the Golden State Salmon Association, whose members have not been able to fish for the last two years because of the shockingly low numbers of Chinook salmon still remaining in the wild.
"California salmon are right now at one of the most disastrous points they've been at, certainly in human history," said Nelson. "We've now gone to a point where many of our most important salmon runs are on the brink of extinction."
Fishermen say the salmon need larger flows in rivers during dry months to survive. And though they're frequently competing with Central Valley agriculture for water, this time, the farmers are also unhappy about the water releases.
"The agriculture community looks at it and says, 'What is going on here?' That is water that was being held in storage for farmers to grow stuff next summer," said Nelson. "Releasing water now only does one thing: puts people at risk from flooding."
Nelson is concerned that this waste of billions of gallons of water will be an indication of the kind of resource management the country can expect for the next four years.
"California has the most complex plumbing system on the planet," he said. "It's not a simple thing to operate. And if you think it's simple, and order people to make what look like simple decisions to you, you wind up making really dumb decisions."
In his announcement, President Trump said more than five billion gallons of water would be released within three days of opening up the dams. Nelson said he believes that people within the Army Corps of Engineers must know that releasing water now is pointless. But as a branch of the U.S. military, he thinks they were simply following orders from their Commander in Chief.
"What's interesting here is that this experience with this just dumb release of water -- that didn't benefit anybody and threatened public safety -- shows that expertise actually matters when you're running big complicated systems," said Nelson. "We'll see if anyone in Washington D.C. is listening to that lesson."