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The Trump administration’s politicization of federal disaster aid was on display over the weekend.
President Donald Trump’s provision of disaster aid to help Texas respond to deadly flooding in Kerr County — the conservative-leaning region that helped elect GOP Rep. Chip Roy — was appropriately urgent. His approach to recent catastrophes in states led by Democrats? Not so much.
The federal government should urgently provide all aid necessary to stricken areas. So there was nothing wrong with Trump’s announcement that he had authorized a “major disaster declaration” that will unlock federal funding for Texas.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem shared the announcement in a social media post, vowing that Texans will “get the support they need as search efforts continue and recovery begins.”
But Trump and his administration have taken a markedly different approach to federal assistance for various Democratic-led states — slashing, stalling or outright denying money for disaster aid, sometimes for nakedly political purposes.
In fact, just hours before Trump’s Texas aid announcement, the advisor he tapped to lead the U.S. government’s response to deadly wildfires in Los Angeles County earlier this year, Ric Grenell, posted a political attack on California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat. Grenell said he had told Trump not to give aid to California unless the state meets certain political demands related to its water supply and forestation policies — essentially peddling Trump’s false claims that the devastating fires stemmed from liberal policymaking.
“The fires will happen again. I’ve told DJT we shouldn’t spend federal money on California if the problems aren’t fixed first,” Grenell wrote on X on Sunday morning.
Trump himself has said that California instituting a restrictive voter identification law is a “condition” for him to administer more money, so he clearly doesn’t think politicization of disaster aid is a problem — despite his lie-filled allegations about President Joe Biden’s administration after Hurricane Helene last fall.
Trump’s administration also has denied a request from another Democrat, Washington state Gov. Bob Ferguson, to issue a major disaster declaration that would unlock funds to help his state recover from a bomb cyclone in November. The Federal Emergency Management Agency concluded that such a declaration is “not warranted.”
And the administration has denied North Carolina Democratic Gov. Josh Stein’s request to get fully reimbursed for Helene cleanup, a move that could severely undermine the state’s years-long recovery efforts. FEMA similarly determined that the request is “not warranted.”
The president has been outspoken about his goal of shutting down FEMA by the end of hurricane season and giving states a greater share of the financial burden of disaster recovery. In the meantime, the administration seems to be using the agency as a means to assist people and places seen as friendly to Trump — and to punish those that aren’t.