President Donald Trump promised to break California’s water rules wide open. So far, he’s mostly working within them. Five months after Trump issued a pair of directives for federal agencies to overturn state and Biden-era rules limiting water deliveries, the federal government has done no such thing. Instead, it’s quietly increasing water flows following the very rules Trump once railed against — at least for now. … What’s changed? For one, California had a wet winter, which tends to smooth over political differences. … Newsom has also aligned himself more with Trump on water, as when he jilted Delta-area Democrats last month in pushing to expedite a tunnel to move more supplies from Northern to Southern California. More substantively, some of the water districts that might be expected to agitate for Trump to overturn Biden-era water rules concede that they actually allow more deliveries than Trump’s version.

Other Trump administration and California water news:

•  E&E News by Politico: California lawmakers defer governor’s Delta tunnel proposal
• The Modesto Bee (Calif.): Opinion​: Trump budget signals long-overdue shift toward pragmatic water management