Donald Trump has intentionally withheld disaster aid from states he deemed politically hostile as president, and will once again provide it unhindered once he returns to the White House. Several former Trump administration officials have warned.
As Hurricane Helen and then Hurricane Milton hit much of the southeastern United States in the past two weeks, President Trump has sought to shift the blame for the overwhelming response to the disasters to President Joe Biden’s administration. This even suggested that this may have been intentional. Percentage of Republican voters affected by the storm.
But former Trump administration officials say that when he took office, the former president initially refused to begin federal disaster aid for California’s wildfires in 2018, withheld wildfire aid for Washington state in 2020, and Emergency aid to Puerto Rico has been severely restricted in response to the devastating fires. After the devastating Hurricane Maria in 2017, she felt these communities were not doing enough to support her.
The revelations, first reported by E&E News, raised big questions about what Trump’s response to the disaster would be if he wins next month’s presidential election. The former president has already been criticized for his role in spreading misinformation about Helen and Milton, which delayed disaster response and even led to online attacks against Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) officials and meteorologists. It is said that this led to death threats.
Kevin Carroll, who served as a senior adviser to Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly during Trump’s term, said, “Trump would never want to give aid to California or Puerto Rico purely for partisan politics.” Because they didn’t vote for Trump.” Carroll said Kelly, who later became the president’s chief of staff, had to “twist Trump’s arm” to get federal funds released through Fema to these hard-hit areas. Ta.
“It was clear that Trump was completely selfish and had a vendetta against people he decided did not vote for him,” Carroll told the Guardian. “He even considered pulling the Navy out of Hawaii because Hawaii didn’t vote for him. We were appalled. These are American civilians that the government should take care of. Withhold aid. That idea is antithetical to everything we want in a leader.”
The Department of Homeland Security’s Olivia Troy said efforts to break Mr. Trump’s reluctance to provide aid to California could be due to the large number of Republican voters in Orange County, which was badly hit by the wildfires. It is said that it was only successful after the voting data shown was provided to the president at the time. Advisor to President Trump.
“He saw everything through a political lens, so we had to sit down and brainstorm a way to get him to agree to this,” Troy told the Guardian. “There were times when disaster declarations sat on his desk for days, constant calls about how to move things along quickly, and times when he had to ask Mike Pence for input.
“It was shocking and appalling to us to see the president of the United States behave like this. Basically, if it’s not in his interest, he’s not interested in it. We saw this during the coronavirus pandemic, when it was red states versus blue states, and it’s clearly reflected in his current behavior as he politicizes disaster response. . It’s dangerous and reckless.”
Troye said one of the most “egregious” delays occurred after Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico, causing widespread damage and killing nearly 3,000 people. In the wake of the disaster, President Trump claimed the death toll was inflated “to make me look as bad as possible,” called San Juan’s mayor “crazy and incompetent,” and threatened to defund billions of dollars in federal funding for the island. Government support has been suspended.
Ultimately, Fema covered debris removal in Puerto Rico, and President Trump visited the U.S. territory and threw paper towels to hurricane survivors. However, not all of the island’s reconstruction costs were paid by the federal government, and an independent inspector general’s report found that Fema followed Maria in misallocating aid funds.
This was just months after President Trump agreed to pay 100% of Florida’s costs after the state was hit by Hurricane Michael. “The people of the Panhandle love me,” Trump said, according to an autobiography written by Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis. “I should have gotten 90% of the votes. Big crowd. What do they need?”
Officials around President Trump have been able to persuade them to relent to some extent in these cases, but after wildfires ripped through the eastern part of the state in 2020 and largely destroyed the communities of Malden and Pine City. The former president steadfastly refused to provide disaster relief to Washington. .
An aide to Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, whose district was devastated by the wildfires, said Trump had disliked the state’s Democratic governor and prominent critic Jay Inslee for months. has rejected Washington’s requests for federal aid.
McMorris Rodgers sent a letter to Trump, supporting him in his dispute with Inslee and pleading with the president to release the funding. “Despite the Governor’s malicious personal vendetta against your administration, the people of my district need support,” McMorris Rogers said in a statement. I sincerely hope that they will continue to provide support to people.”
However, President Trump did not agree that the aid would only be given once Joe Biden takes office. “Trump angered young people and consciously and maliciously withheld aid because states had the audacity to question his policies,” Inslee told the Guardian.
“What’s so surprising is that Mr. Trump is reveling in his authoritarian instincts of refusing to help people, most of whom are left with their homes reduced to ashes or languishing in less than 8 feet of water. Frankly, it’s a window into the darkness of his soul. We see him in North Carolina, where he uses natural disasters for his own purposes and fragile ego. We’ve seen him use it again. He was and is still dangerous.”
Carroll and Troy, both former Trump administration officials, predicted there would be fewer restrictions on withholding disaster aid if Trump were re-elected to the White House. Several Trump allies, including the authors of the conservative Project 2025 manifesto, have urged the Republican candidate to fulfill his wishes by eradicating opposition and installing a submissive political machine within the federal government. We are asking you to support us.
“Next time, we won’t have the integrity of Mike Pence. We’ll have J.D. Vance, who will do what Trump wants,” said Troy, a Republican who supports Kamala Harris for president. spoke. “At a time like this when it should be nonpartisan, it’s alarming to think about a future Trump administration with only supporters surrounding him.
“We hope voters will pay close attention to the contrast between the responsible leadership shown by Biden and Harris and the dangerous behavior of Donald Trump.”
Just last month, President Trump suggested that consensus building on disaster relief would not change if he became president, unless California Governor Gavin Newsom agreed to provide more water to farmers. , threatened to block aid to California.
“Gavin Newcomb (Newsom) is going to sign these papers,” Trump said from his golf course in California. “If he doesn’t sign these papers, we won’t give him the money to put out all the fires. And if we don’t give him the money to put out the fires, he won’t have any problems.” I am holding.”
Trump campaign national spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt did not answer questions about Carroll and Troy’s claims, instead pointing to Trump’s efforts to improve wildfire management and saying that disaster relief funds are being given to immigrants by Fema. He reiterated the debunked claims of misappropriation. .
“President Trump visited Georgia twice in one week to inspect the damage caused by Hurricane Helen and called on his supporters to donate more than $6 million to local relief efforts,” she said. said.
“Kamala Harris stole $1 billion from Fema to pay for housing illegal immigrants, and now struggling Americans are left with nothing. President Trump is leading the way at this tragic moment. But Mr. Kamala is once again leaving the American people behind.”
