President Donald Trump denied disaster aid to four Democratic-led states in a move that is raising new questions about whether he’s injecting political motivations into emergency management decisions.
Trump on Friday rejected $227 million in aid requests from New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Rhode Island for help recovering from a major snowstorm in February. Two days earlier, Trump approved Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster aid for six Republican-led states, while extolling the political virtues of GOP politicians and candidates in the states.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement that “there is no politicization to the President’s decisions on disaster relief,” adding that Trump “provides a more thorough review of disaster declaration requests than any Administration has before him.”
Democrats immediately questioned Trump’s denials, arguing that they follow a pattern disclosed by POLITICO in March of Trump mostly rejecting disaster aid for Democratic-led states while approving it for states that are led by officials in his party.
“On the same day you approved major disaster declarations for several Republican-led states, you chose to leave Rhode Islanders out in the cold,” the state’s congressional delegation — comprising four Democrats — told Trump in a letter Monday. “It is unacceptable to politicize the disaster declaration process.”
New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim, another Democrat, put the onus on Trump to show the public that his disaster policies are untainted by politics.
“If there is a reason other than politics for him and his administration to withhold FEMA assistance, we need an explanation immediately,” he said in a statement.
FEMA said in response to a request for comment that damage from snowstorms must be “genuinely extraordinary” to qualify for federal disaster aid and that “the East Coast is generally expected to manage major snowstorms independently.”
The Trump administration last year considered ending all disaster aid for snowstorms, prompting congressional leaders to assert in a January bipartisan spending measure that “snowstorms shall be eligible for Federal relief.”
Each of the four states that Trump rejected for disaster aid on Friday has a Democratic governor and two Democratic senators.
POLITICO’s past reporting showed that in this term Trump had approved just 23 percent of disaster requests from states whose governor and two senators are Democrats, compared to approving 89 percent of requests from states with Republicans in those positions. Kim and 15 other Democratic senators have demanded documents and information from the White House in response to POLITICO’s reporting.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said she would appeal Trump’s newest denial and told reporters Monday in Long Island that “it is the federal government’s responsibility to help in these disasters.”
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D) also plans to appeal Trump’s denial, said Robert Burgess, a spokesperson for the state Emergency Management Agency.
Trump’s denials came after he spent much of his current presidency trying to weaken FEMA and shift more responsibility for disaster recovery to the states. A panel appointed by Trump to review FEMA’s policies recently suggested reducing disaster aid by raising the damage threshold that is used to determine if states qualify for financial help.
In the recent aid denials, all four states exceeded FEMA’s current damage threshold that would trigger aid to flow, according to estimates by FEMA.
In New Jersey, for example, FEMA documented $84.4 million in damage that should be eligible for FEMA reimbursement, the state’s lawmakers said. The FEMA threshold for an event in New Jersey to qualify for disaster aid is roughly $18.5 million.
FEMA also documented $79 million in damage in New York, $45 million in Massachusetts and $19 million in Rhode Island, according to officials from those states. That follows a pattern reported by POLITICO in March: Most of Trump’s denials involving Democratic-led states occurred after FEMA had documented sufficient damage to qualify for aid.
FEMA said Tuesday that it has “returned to a more rigorous review process” under Trump to ensure that “requests for federal assistance are justified and not granted for routine or expected weather events.”
Two days before Trump denied aid to the four Northeastern states, he approved 11 other requests for disaster aid that include three U.S. territories or tribes. Approvals also went to Wisconsin and Michigan, both of which have Democratic governors.
The disaster declarations Trump approved involved less-damaging events than the four he rejected.
For example, Trump denied Rhode Island’s request for $19 million — which is roughly 10 times the state’s threshold to qualify. That came as Trump approved $8.6 million for Louisiana after it was hit by a tropical storm — an amount that it is roughly equivalent to the state’s qualification threshold.
The other states that received disaster aid experienced damage close to their qualification thresholds.
When Trump announced the Louisiana approval last week on Truth Social, he praised Republican politicians in the state and Republican Senate candidate Julia Letlow.
Trump began his Truth Social post about approving $22.6 million for Wisconsin by saying, “I just spoke with Congressman Tom Tiffany (who has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Governor!).” Trump did not mention Tony Evers, the Democratic governor who requested the aid.
Trump also omitted Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) when he announced $5.5 million in disaster aid for her state. Instead, he named Sen. Roger Marshall (R) and gubernatorial candidate Ty Masterson, a Republican “who has my Complete and Total Endorsement.”
