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Amid the fallout of a deadly tornado Sunday, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear confidently claimed that the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to the National Weather Service hadn’t hampered his state’s ability to notify residents about the looming storm — but he expressed some worries about the days ahead.
Beshear’s comments follow multiple news reports about cuts to staffing at the National Weather Service office in Jackson, Kentucky, which — rather heroically — largely succeeded in notifying the public about the oncoming storm. The reports cite the NWS workers union about the consequences of staff cuts by Trump and Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Critics have warned about the risks from these cuts to rural communities in particular.
In a press conference Sunday, Beshear — the Democratic governor of a state Trump won by nearly 30 points in 2024 — offered some praise of the administration, even as he worried about the future implications of the NWS cuts. But he made clear that he didn’t think the cuts had created a problem in notifying people about this weekend’s storm.
“While I have big concerns with cuts to the National Weather Service, I don’t see any evidence that it impacted this one,” he said.
When asked whether the cuts have him worried about how other people may fare going forward, he said “yes” before speaking about the importance of the NWS. But Beshear laid the praise on pretty thick when it came to Trump and his people:
Let me just be really clear on this: the White House, Secretary Noem, and FEMA have responded incredibly well each time we’ve had a natural disaster in Kentucky. I have no criticisms of their operations on the ground, and that’s coming from a guy who’s had disagreements with this president. But they’ve done a good job when FEMA has come in to Kentucky, and I’m grateful.”
At another point in his speech, Beshear seemed to acknowledge his state has been treated better than others that have sought disaster aid from the Trump administration. “Our federal partners have been incredible about getting the administration to sign off on our declarations when some other states haven’t seen that,” he said.
As I’ve written previously, several states, including Washington and North Carolina, with Democratic governors have been denied federal aid or left to cover shortfalls to help their residents recover from natural disasters. Trump has also floated the idea of withholding aid from Democrat-led California for blatantly political reasons.
Last month, former Trump press secretary and current Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders saw her request for federal disaster aid denied after deadly storms in her state, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced last week that the denial has been reversed. (Trump, of course, has also openly discussed eliminating FEMA, which leads the federal response to natural disasters.)
The administration’s varying responses speak to the uncertainty it has introduced into situations that would, in a just world, be clear to every American: that their government will come to their aid when catastrophe hits.