Farmers in California’s Central Valley are embracing Trump’s executive order that will send more water to its agriculturally rich land.
Photographer: September Dawn Bottoms/Bloomberg
Trump’s California Water Order Does More for Farms Than Fires
The state’s Republican farmers are an emerging force but still fear tariffs and deportations.
President Donald Trump’s obsession with California’s water comes from an often overlooked source — Golden State farmers.
Typically Republican and clustered in the vast Central Valley, they’ve long fought Democrat-controlled Sacramento over California’s limited water supplies, saying state officials shortchange farms to protect fish. They power California’s $59 billion agriculture industry but command none of the national political clout given the big donors of Hollywood or Silicon Valley.