CALFORNIA/CLIMATE CHANGE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TWITTER: “Even the White House can’t explain President Donald Trump’s tweets suggesting California environmental laws have worsened wildfires raging in that state. On Tuesday [8-7-18], administration officials declined to offer any clarity on Trump’s series of tweets claiming environmental laws and water regulations in California are hampering the state’s ability to fight the wildfires. Wildfire experts and local officials say the President’s claims simply don’t hold up. Instead, some White House officials admitted to being slightly perplexed at where Trump may have gotten the notion that California’s long-running water crisis and a debate over how to divide limited supplies are somehow related to the out of control fires. While Trump’s tweets can sometimes be linked to segments on Fox News, there have been no correlating segments linking the two issues in recent days on the channel that frequently serves as presidential inspiration. White House officials also couldn’t say whether Trump had discussed the issue with California lawmakers involved in the water debate.”
–Jeremy Diamond and Kevin Liptak, “White House can’t — or won’t — explain Trump’s wildfire tweets,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, August 7, 2018 4:56 pm