Trump blames Biden and California Gov. Gavin Newsom for deadly wildfires

President-elect Donald Trump blamed President Joe Biden and California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday for the wildfires raging in Los Angeles that have killed at least five people and forced tens of thousands to evacuate their homes.

“Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him 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 wrote in one of several posts on his social media platform, Truth Social.

He added that Newsom "wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn’t work!), but didn’t care about the people of California. Now the ultimate price is being paid. I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is the blame for this. On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes. A true disaster!”

In a statement in response, Newsom's director of communications, Izzy Gardon, accused Trump of "playing politics" while the wildfires continued to wreak havoc in Southern California.

"There is no such document as the water restoration declaration – that is pure fiction. The Governor is focused on protecting people, not playing politics, and making sure firefighters have all the resources they need," Gardon said.

Newsom on Tuesday declared a state of emergency over the fires, which had left around 400,000 customers without power as of Wednesday afternoon. Biden issued a major disaster declaration Wednesday, clearing the way for federal assistance in the region.

It appears that by mentioning a "water restoration declaration," Trump was referring to a presidential memorandum he signed in early 2020 that sought to divert water from Northern California to farmland in the center and the south of the state.

"[It’s] going to give you a lot of water, a lot of dam, a lot of everything. You’ll be able to farm your land, and you’ll be able to do things you never thought possible," Trump said at an event announcing the memo in California in 2020.

On the day of his announcement, Newsom and then-California Attorney General Xavier Becerra denounced Trump's move, calling it a "harmful attack on our state's critical ecosystems and environment."

Newsom said, “We will file legal action in the coming days to challenge the federal biological opinions to protect highly imperiled fish species close to extinction.”

Earlier that year, Newsom committed to efforts to double California's salmon population by 2050 and canceled a plan set in motion by former Gov. Jerry Brown that would have added two tunnels to funnel water from northern parts of the state to the south.

In the statement on the day of Trump's 2020 event, Newsom mentioned his goal of balancing the need to move water with the need to preserve endangered species, saying, “Our goal continues to be to realize enforceable voluntary agreements that provide the best immediate protection for delta species, reliable and safe drinking water, and dependable water sources for our farmers for economic prosperity."

As president and as recently as October, Trump repeatedly threatened to withhold federal disaster aid for California's wildfires.

“We’re going to take care of your water situation, and we’ll force it down his throat. And we’ll say, Gavin, if you don’t do it, we’re not giving you any of that fire money that we send you all the time for all the fire, forest fires,” Trump said at an event in Coachella, California, on Oct. 12.

Later Wednesday, Trump posted about the wildfires again, this time slamming Biden.

“NO WATER IN THE FIRE HYDRANTS, NO MONEY IN FEMA. THIS IS WHAT JOE BIDEN IS LEAVING ME. THANKS JOE!” he wrote shortly after Biden attended a briefing in Santa Monica hosted by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection alongside Newsom and Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif.

In a separate post, Trump added, “Let this serve, and be emblematic, of the gross incompetence and mismanagement of the Biden/Newscum Duo. January 20th cannot come fast enough!”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump's remarks.

Trump and his allies spread conspiracy theories about the Federal Emergence Management Agency during the last months of the presidential campaign last year and in the aftermath of several destructive hurricanes in the South.

The falsehood appeared to conflate two FEMA funds — one for disaster relief that legally cannot be used for other reasons and a Customs and Border Protection fund that FEMA was instructed to disseminate to communities that received influxes of migrants.

At the time, FEMA clarified online: “No money is being diverted from disaster response needs. FEMA’s disaster response efforts and individual assistance is funded through the Disaster Relief Fund, which is a dedicated fund for disaster efforts.”

Trump also appears to have been referring to fire hydrants that ran dry in Los Angeles early Wednesday.

City utility officials blamed the issue on the amount of water firefighters needed in low and high-altitude parts of the city, saying the water pressure in hilly areas of the city fell because so much water was being pulled from tanks in lower-altitude regions.

Firefighters resorted to using water tenders to make sure they had continual access to water while water pumps in high-elevation areas were refilled.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com