Trump warns California will have to ration water because it dumps so much in the sea to help 'certain little tiny fish'

‘They have farms here and they don’t get water. It is so ridiculous they’re taking the water and shoving it out to sea’

Donald Trump returned to an old campaign attack line ridiculing Democrats for transporting “little tiny fish” from California’s deltas out to sea, as he claimed the state would soon “have to ration water”.

Speaking with Fox News’ host Sean Hannity, the US president suggested on Thursday that the Democrat-run state would have to ration water supplies because of policies protecting a small fish species known as delta smelt.

The small silvery-blue three-inch fish smell like cucumbers, and can only be found in the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, where they are a protected species.

Mr Trump told The Sean Hannity Show that California’s conservation policies protecting the Delta smelt, whose numbers rapidly declined amid prolonged drought prior to the 2016 election, were responsible for the loss of water.

"California is gonna have to ration water. You wanna know why? Because they send millions of gallons of water out to sea, out to the Pacific,” he claimed on Thursday.

“[It’s] because they want to take care of certain little tiny fish, that aren't doing very well without water," added Mr Trump, who made the same claims in 2016 amid concerns from farmers.

“They have farms here and they don’t get water. It is so ridiculous they’re taking the water and shoving it out to sea,” he told a crowd, in apparent reference to 1.4 trillion gallons of water that California reportedly pumped into the San Francisco Bay between 2008 and 2016 in an attempt to save the delta smelt’s dwindling population.

That water, the Wall Street Journal reported, could have supplied some 6.4 million Californian residents with a six-year water supply, provoking outrage amongst farmers who used delta water for irrigation.

Mr Trump’s recent comments came as Mr Hannity asked what a Green New Deal would look like under the Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, whose environmental proposals do not directly endorse the Green New Deal - which proposes strict measures to combat the climate crisis.  

Whilst the president claimed that “Biden agreed to this with Crazy Bernie” and other progressives, the Democrat’s climate plan describes the Green New Deal as a “crucial framework for meeting the climate challenges we face.”

Mr Biden reiterated during the first televised presidential debate with Mr Trump that he does not support the Green New Deal, saying “No, I don’t support the Green New Deal."

"The Biden plan that I put forward...which is different,” he added.