In this excerpt from a past episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, host Joe Rogan and former President Donald Trump talk about California’s water‑management policies. Trump claims that California deliberately withholds water to protect the endangered delta smelt, causing reservoirs to remain empty and agricultural communities to suffer drought. He blames Democratic governors (Gavin Newsom and Jerry Brown) for not building promised water‑infrastructure despite available funding. Trump also argues that the state’s strict environmental rules prevent forest‑fuel reduction, leading to costly, uncontrolled wildfires. He suggests that simply clearing dead‑fall and fallen trees would dramatically reduce fire risk and expenses. The dialogue is informal, with Rogan prompting and echoing Trump’s points, and includes rhetorical questions aimed at a California audience.
Chapters
This is Trump. This is months ago. I forget the numbers, guys. This is months ago on Joe Rogan's podcast. You had Trump out there talking about the issue that exists in California where— and I heard Sean Hannity talk about this stuff. I think it was like 10 years ago where literally Californians— maybe it was less than that because Gavin Newsom was in, but they were trying to save the life, I guess, of this delta smelt, which is a common fish. and so they weren't releasing water from the reservoirs into some of these farming communities, and these farming communities were drying out. Their crops were drying out all over this Delta smelt. You've got reservoirs that have been kind of bought and paid for, but not built for 10 years now. Gavin Newsom didn't build them. Jerry, uh, uh, Jerry Brown before him didn't build them. California has the money to build them. They don't build them. Where's that money, guys? You live in California. Where's that money? What are these Democrats doing with your money? Bass had all of this money. Actually, let me play this clip and I'll get back to it. I want to make sure that I don't forget. This is video clip number— what is it? Number 29. Por favor. This is— they said we have no water. This is Trump. They said, do you have a drought?
No, we don't have a drought. I said, why don't you have no water? Because the water isn't allowed to flow down. It's got a natural flow from Canada all the way up north, more water than they could ever use. And in order to protect a tiny little fish, the water up north gets routed into the Pacific Ocean. Millions and millions of gallons of water gets poured. I could have water for all of that land, water for your forests. You know, your forests are dry as a bone. Yeah. Okay?
Dangerous.
That water could be routed. You know, you could have everything. Oh, not only dangerous, billions of dollars a year they spend on forest fires. And you know, there's a case with the environment. They're not allowed to rake their forest because you're not allowed to touch it. And all they have to do is clean their forest, meaning rake it up, get rid of the leaves, get rid of, you know, leaves that are sitting there for 5 years and they're—
Well, certainly get rid of the dead fall.
And get rid of the trees that have fallen and that, you know, are like—
