Trump: California has lots of water, so why are the lawns...

WASHINGTON — President Trump doubled down Tuesday on his criticism of California policies that he says are responsible for wildfires and misdirecting water that could be used to keep people’s lawns from turning brown.

Speaking before a crowd of local officials at the White House that included dozens of officials from around California, Trump went into an extended riff about a state that he said he knows well. He included an ambiguous threat to cut off federal funding in the aftermath of a long summer of wildfires.

“California, get on the ball because we’re not going to hand you any more money,” Trump told the crowd. “It’s ridiculous.”

Trump began criticizing water policies in California over the summer when fires were raging near Redding, in Lake County and elsewhere. He complained that water was being “foolishly being diverted into the Pacific Ocean,” although fire officials said they had no shortages of water and although California’s rivers naturally flow to the ocean.

Last week, Trump said California’s “incompetence” was preventing the logging of dead trees that make wildfires worse, although the federal government owns more than half the forested land in California.

Nevertheless, on Tuesday, Trump repeated those claims, blaming “environmentalists” and telling the local officials that “you wouldn’t have (wildfires) if they managed their forests properly.”

“The environmentalists are doing something very bad, they won’t let us take the logs, they won’t let us take the dead trees,” Trump said. “If a little spark hits it, they lose 200,000 acres.”

The president repeated a threat he first made last week to reduce unspecified federal funding to the state, saying, “We’re tired of giving California hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars all the time for their forest fires when you wouldn’t have them if they managed their forests properly. They don’t. They have lousy management.”

“It’s all a mess,” he said.

Trump also returned to the subject of water policy in California, something he has touched on twice in recent days. On Friday, he issued a presidential memo intended to speed up environmental review of water projects for California farms and reduce “regulatory burdens.” He signed the document in a public event with several Central Valley congressional Republicans who are locked in competitive re-election races.

“I hear it’s the finest land there is for growing things, but they took away the water,” Trump said. He recounted a visit to GOP Rep. Devin Nunes’ Fresno-area district and seeing “dry, horrible ... all dry land” on farms, with just a little green “spots.”

He pledged a federal commitment to easing regulatory burdens, but said, “I hope the state will do it” as well.

“I know California well,” Trump said. “And I see houses, beautiful houses, people are very proud of their houses. Their lawn is brown. It’s dead. It’s dying, it’s dead. And they end up taking it out and just have sand in front of their houses, and they have so much water they don’t know what to do with it.”

Asked about Trump’s remarks, Evan Westrup, a spokesman for Gov. Jerry Brown, said, “Trump and truth have long had a troubled relationship. And here in California, we remain big proponents of thinking before speaking.”

Tal Kopan is the San Francisco Chronicle’s Washington correspondent. Email: tal.kopan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TalKopan