Donald Trump on Monday arguably made himself the biggest player in California’s water wars with the stroke of a pen.

One of the 100 plus executive orders Trump signed within hours of returning to the White House was to unleash federal agencies to do everything they can to divert more of California’s snow melt to points south of the Delta, and allow less to flow into San Francisco Bay.

This is not a new frontier for Trump.

Congressman Josh Harder’s predecessor, Jeff Denham, managed to persuade the White House team during Trump’s first 4-year stint as president, to order federal agencies to work to send more water under federal control in California to farmers and less to the ocean.

This was when California was in the throes of one of its routine droughts.

And one of the big roadblocks, as it was explained correctly at the time, were biological opinions being used by agencies and/or court decisions pursued by litigants, in regards to minimum flows need to keep fish populations in the Delta healthy.

The poster fish for those fighting to prevent more water being diverted to agriculture and urban areas is the Delta smelt that rarely exceeds 7 centimeters in size.

The ongoing struggle from the perspective of a number of environmentalists is the Delta smelt being the proverbial David and farming and urban interests being Goliath.

However, given the last 50 years of water wars, size can be deceiving.

You could argue from another perspective California’s $59.4 billion agriculture industry is actually David and the Delta smelt is Goliath.

That $59.4 billion sector of the economy makes California by far the most productive farm state and allows it to produce more than three quarters of the nation’s fruits and nuts as well as more than a third of its vegetables.

It is why how DC agencies involved in federal water projects do business in this state should be a presidential concern.

A secure food supply is basic to national interests.

Given global needs, it is also a strategic sector when it comes not just to balancing our trade but also the ability to shape foreign policy in Third World countries.

Countries that struggle to feed their people often are sitting on resources such as precious metals that are key to the United States’ economy.

At the same time, the federal Bureau of Reclamation that oversees the Central Valley Project makes water decisions that can impact the vitality of California’s tech and aerospace rich coastal regions.

Ag, tech, and aerospace are three main drivers of the California economy that, if the state were a free-standing nation, would be the fifth latest economy in the world.

That said, it provides in excess of 11 percent of the USA’s gross national product.

No president has really approached the federal government’s involvement in California water matters from that perspective.

And despite laying out his vision of pursuing a new frontier in the manifest destiny for America throughout his inaugural address, it does seem Trump will either.

That’s because what is driving his executive order — at least for now — are the burning fires in Los Angeles.

Trump has gulped down the social media Kool-Aid that contends the lack of adequate water imported from Northern California to the south state was a contributing factor to the devastation caused by the Los Angeles wildfires that are still burning.

The reservoirs that store north state water for future use south of the Tehachapi mountains were above normal for water storage despite the South Coast from Santa Barbara to San Diego being under drought conditions.

If water was the problem, then it was in the aging system — some of it over  a century — in the City of Los Angeles — that stores, pressurizes, and delivers water to fire hydrants.

And that is a pretty big if, considering the fierce, Santa Ana winds, dried brush, the dynamics of fires moving down canyons, and dense development patterns.

Don’t be surprised if Los Angeles power brokers and corporate agricultural billionaires who are to farming what Elon Musk & The Gang are to tech don’t jump on the bandwagon Trump has started rolling.

The biggest card the federal government holds currently without worry — at least  for now — of being sued to the edges of the universe and back by entrenched environmental organizations swimming in the murky waters of California water politics, is the Delta tunnel.

Given the water that is to be diverted around the Delta is stored behind Shasta Dam, which happens to be the state’s largest reservoir, the state needs to secure the federal Bureau of Reclamation’s approval to divert it.

Unless Congress passes a bill to prevent that from happening and the president signs it into law, an executive order is the only thing stopping the bureaucracy from giving development interests in the Los Angeles Basin exactly what they want.

And it will come not just at the expense of the Delta smelt, but also farmers that aren’t the well-heeled using obscene amounts of water to make at best marginal farmland in the southwestern San Joaquin Valley Fire.

The Trojan horse that could aptly be christened “Wildfire” —  a thousand apologies to song writer Michael Murphey — that  Trump has inadvertently created could deliver the Delta tunnel.

The irony of such a scenario is that the Delta tunnel is the adopted baby of Trump’s nemesis, Gov. Gavin Newsom.

If you don’t think water interests are not going to run with the argument not getting more water from the north state means more and more destructive wildfires, then you’ve forgotten the shameless chameleon acts that LA water interests have perfected.

First, we needed the twin tunnels because an earthquake would collapse all the Delta levees and leave Beverly Hills swimming pools without a drop of water for months.

When that didn’t work, the myopic tunnel was needed to guard Los Angeles and the Delta against the ravages of climate change interrupting the water supply. 

The climate change argument has gotten little traction.

However,  wildfires offer big visible scars that aren’t going to go away anytime soon plus more are assuredly on the way.

Given all that, rest assured the Delta tunnel will be touted as key to guaranteeing LA of a reliable source of water to guard against Los Angeles residents being burned out of house and home.

If the ruse succeeds, Newsom could end up thanking Trump for making the big beautiful tunnel happen.

This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com