CALIFORNIA –  In response to President Donald Trump’s threat to withhold federal firefighting aid, a California firefighters union said, September 13, the former president should be ashamed.

In a Facebook post, California Professional Firefighters president Brian K. Rice said Trump would rather watch the state burn in the name of political games, than to send help if he were to become president again.

“Former President Trump should be ashamed for threatening to withhold federal firefighting aid from California should he be elected,” said Rice in a statement.

He goes on to say that not much has changed since 2018 when Trump expressed a similar sentiment during the Camp Fire, in which 85 people lost their lives.

“It is shocking that we have a presidential candidate who is threatening our public safety and doesn’t even care what the consequences are to firefighters and the public,” said Rice.

California received over $1 billion in federal aid in 2020

In 2020, a year that had some of the most destructive wildfires in the state’s history, California received over $1 billion in federal aid for fire suppression, recovery, and prevention efforts.

Trump said, in a second term, he would stop sending California federal firefighting aid unless Governor Gavin Newsom sign papers related to the state’s water policies.

“The automobile industry is dead, the water coming here is dead, and Gavin ‘Newscum’ is gonna sign those papers,” said Trump during a September 13 news conference at his Rancho Palos Verdes golf course. “And if he doesn’t sign those papers, we won’t give him money to put out all his fires. And if we don’t give him all the money to put out fires, he’s got problems. He’s a lousy governor.”

Trump: The automobile industry is dead. The water coming here is dead, and Gavin Newscum is going to sign those papers. And if he doesn’t sign those papers, we won’t give him money to put out all his fires. If we don’t give him the money, he’s got problems pic.twitter.com/Xo2Xvr0bbD

— Acyn (@Acyn) September 13, 2024

The papers Trump is referring to is a longstanding political dispute over water management policies in California.

Specifically, this involves rules that were put in place to protect endangered species, such as the Delta smelt – a small, short-lived fish.

In 2020, the Trump administration weakened these environmental regulations to increase water flow to farmers.

Newsom opposed the changes and sued to block them.