The Los Angeles Times reported that Trump used the devastating Los Angeles fires to stage a pointless stunt: He sent the Army Corps of Engineers to release water from two Northern California reservoirs. He claimed that he released the water to help put the fires out, but by the time he did it, the fires were almost completely extinguished, and it would not have flowed to Los Angeles anyway.

Now the farmers who rely on the water in the reservoirs are worried if they will have enough water this summer.

Days after President Trump startled some of his most ardent supporters in California’s San Joaquin Valley by having the Army Corps of Engineers suddenly release water from two dams, many in the region and beyond were still perplexed.

Acting on an order from Washington, the corps allowed irrigation water to flow down river channels for three days, into the network of engineered waterways that fan out among farm fields in the San Joaquin Valley. Coursing from rivers to canals to irrigation ditches, much of the water eventually made its way to retention basins, where it soaked into the ground, replenishing groundwater.

“It’s been recharged to the ground,” said Tom Barcellos, president of the Lower Tule River Irrigation District and a dairyman and farmer. That sounds good, except farmers in parts of the San Joaquin Valley typically depend on water from the two dams to irrigate crops in the summer. In other words, the release of water this time of year, when agriculture usually doesn’t require it, means that growers are likely to have less water stored in the reservoirs this summer, during a year that so far is among the area’s driest on record….

The sudden, unplanned release of water from the dams has led to criticism from some residents, water managers and members of Congress, who say the unusual discharge of water seems to have been intended to make a political statement — to demonstrate that Trump has the authority to order federal dams or pumps to send more water flowing as he directs.

“These kinds of shenanigans, they hurt smaller farmers,” said Dezaraye Bagalayos, a local water activist. Small growers have already been struggling, and the release of water from the dams means they will have less when they need it, Bagalayos said.

“The last thing in the world California water management needs is somebody like Trump calling shots when he doesn’t know how anything works,” Bagalayos said. “It’s making an already hard situation very, very difficult. We don’t have a lot of wiggle room in the state of California to be messing around with our water supply like this….”

The action occurred after Trump’s visit to fire-devastated Los Angeles, when he pledged to “open up the valves” to bring the region more water — even though reservoirs that supply Southern California’s cities were at record levels (and remain so).

As the water poured from the dams, Trumpposted a photo of one of them, saying it was “beautiful water flow that I just opened in California.” The Army Corps of Engineers said the action was “consistent with the direction” in Trump’s recent executive order, which calls for maximizing water deliveries.

Neither Trump nor the Army Corps of Engineers provided details about where the water was intended to go. But water released from the two dams serves agriculture in the eastern San Joaquin Valley. It typically does not reach the Los Angeles area, which depends instead on supplies delivered from the aqueducts of the State Water Project on the other side of the valley.

The water releases lowered the levels of the two reservoirs: Lake Success, near Porterville, had been about 20% full. It fell to 18%. Lake Kaweah, near Visalia, was roughly 21% full and similarly dropped to 19% of capacity over the weekend.

Federal records show that more than 2 billion gallons were released from the reservoirs over three days.

If anyone knows of a cure for “stupid,” please contact the White House.