SACRAMENTO, California — President Donald Trump promised to break California’s water rules wide open. So far, he’s mostly working within them.
Five months after Trump issued a pair of directives for federal agencies to overturn state and Biden-era rules limiting water deliveries, the federal government has done no such thing. Instead, it’s quietly increasing water flows following the very rules Trump once railed against — at least for now.
It’s a sharp contrast to Trump’s otherwise confrontational posture toward California and climate policy. In just the last week, he rescinded the state’s authority to phase out gas-powered vehicles and sent the National Guard into Los Angeles over Gov. Gavin Newsom’s objections.
It’s also a sharp contrast to Trump’s campaign rhetoric, when he vowed to force Newsom to reverse a lawsuit blocking his first-term effort to loosen environmental protections in the state’s main water hub, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
