From the onset of his foray into presidential politics a decade ago, Donald Trump has been obsessed with managing California’s water, often interjecting himself into decades-long conflicts over how the precious commodity should be divvied up.

During his first stint as president, Trump was heavily influenced by the Westlands Water District, a huge agricultural water agency in the San Joaquin Valley that sought more irrigation water for itself and other farm interests.

That relationship led to an extremely controversial contract that guaranteed Westlands as much as 1 million acre-feet of water each year from the federal Central Valley Project, solidifying the district’s supply situation. Lacking water rights, Westlands had historically depended on temporary contracts to meet members’ deman

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