Fact File: Trump post on fighting Canadian wildfires with ‘giant faucet’ is a fake

This week, an image supposedly taken from U.S. President Donald Trump’s Truth Social account spread online. In the post, Trump claims he will direct California to turn its “giant faucet” toward Canada to extinguish wildfires burning there. While the post echoes past false comments Trump made about a “very large faucet” able to divert water from the Pacific Ocean to California, it is a fake and does not appear in live or archived versions of Trump’s Truth Social page.

THE CLAIM

“I am going to California to turn the GIANT FAUCET exactly 37 DEGREES TO THE RIGHT and aim the beautiful water directly at Canada, under the strong leadership of Prime Minister Mark Carney, where it will extinguish the wildfires almost immediately,” reads a post seemingly originating from President Donald Trump’s Truth Social account from July 18. 

An image of the supposed post matches details of Trump’s real Truth Social account, including his @realDonaldTrump handle and a number showing “retruths,” referring to the number of shares on the post. 

The image was shared multiple times on Facebook, as well as Instagram and Threads. 

It comes as Trump and several U.S. lawmakers accused Canada of not properly maintaining its forests while wildfires burn across the country, sending smoke into the United States and affecting air quality across much of North America. 

THE FACTS

The post is a fake. It does not appear in Trump’s live Truth Social feed. 

A search of archived versions of Trump’s social feed did not include the post supposedly made on July 18. 

Those archives include the Wayback Machine, the Trump’s Truth searchable archive, the Roll Call searchable archive, and the X account @TrumpTruthOnX, all of which document Trump’s posts on the platform.

Trump’s actual comments on Truth Social regarding Canadian wildfires were from July 17, and did not include the faucet claim. Instead, Trump lambasted Canada for what he called its poor forest management.

“We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein, and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air,” Trump wrote. 

He continued, saying Canada’s “willful negligence” was costing the U.S. billions and that the cost of the pollution should be added to the tariffs already levied against Canada by his administration. 

On Monday the U.S. government announced its plan to impose 50 per cent tariffs on a variety of Canadian exports in 30 days. American officials did not mention wildfire smoke as a trigger for the new levies, saying instead they were a response to Canada’s supply managed dairy system, quotas on American cars and provincial bans on U.S. alcohol.

Trump has falsely claimed in the past that a giant faucet can divert water from Canada to California. A Canadian Press fact check from 2024 debunked Trump’s claim that Canada could turn a faucet to help fight wildfires burning in California at the time.

“You have millions of gallons of water pouring down from the north with the snow caps in Canada and all pouring down and they have essentially a very large faucet,” he said.

“You turn the faucet and it takes one day to turn it. It’s massive, it’s as big as the wall of that building … and you turn that and all of that water goes … aimlessly into the Pacific and if they turned it back, all of that water would come right down here and right into Los Angeles.”

But experts said there is no water system or faucet that could bring water from Canada’s snowcaps to California

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 21, 2026.

By Marissa Birnie | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.