California Governor Gavin Newsom just lit into Donald Trump over a wildfire conspiracy theory the president can’t seem to let go of — and this time, Newsom is openly questioning Trump’s mental state.
In response to yet another recycled lie about California’s wildfires, Newsom clapped back with a brutal screenshot from the AI site Perplexity, asking:
“Is this dementia — repeating the same crazy conspiracies over and over again?”
For anyone who missed it, Trump once again claimed that Newsom was hoarding water — water that, in Trump’s version of reality, could have somehow prevented the devastating Southern California wildfires.
“You wouldn’t have had the fire because all the sprinklers would’ve worked in the houses,” Trump said.
But that’s not how any of this works. Residential homes, especially one- and two-family structures, do not have sprinkler systems.
The National Association of Home Builders spelled it out clearly: “Forty-six states have completely removed the sprinkler requirements for one- and two-family homes.”
Trump’s repeated accusation is based on the false idea that Newsom is sitting on some secret reservoir of snow runoff water that could be unleashed to stop the fires. The problem? It’s complete fiction.
As CNN fact-checked earlier this year, “this is false. Newsom has never refused to sign a ‘water restoration declaration.’ In fact, there is no such document, as Newsom’s office said on social media on Wednesday and experts on California water policy confirmed.”
Jeffrey Mount, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, shot down the claim directly, saying: “At no time was water scarcity in general an issue. Rather, there were local shortages of water during the firefight, principally due to infrastructure constraints. But Southern California has plenty of water in storage right now, so this was not a limiting factor.”
Newsom’s office even went as far as publishing official statements from California’s water agencies and contractors, all debunking the hoax. Yet Trump keeps bringing it up — again and again.
That’s what pushed Newsom to hit back harder than usual, leaning on Perplexity’s explanation of dementia symptoms to make his point.
“People with dementia often repeat the same statements, questions, and sometimes false or mistaken beliefs… including delusions of persistent falsehoods,” Newsom said.
Watch Trump’s clip and read Newsom’s full response below:
Trump: Newsom didn't allow the water to come from the pacific northwest. I demanded that to be open. If that were open. You wouldn't have had the fire because all the sprinklers would've worked in the houses. pic.twitter.com/hCOAniAP8t
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 3, 2025
