Disaster Relief Shouldn’t Be a Presidential Spoils System

(Bloomberg Opinion) — President Donald Trump portrays himself to his supporters as an agent of both punishment and revenge, smiting Democrats, bureaucrats and elitists alike. Among the most recent targets of this vengeance: taxpayers in Maryland, where flash floods have caused millions of dollars in damage this year. It’s part of a larger pattern: Blue states, like Maryland and California , must beg for federal disaster aid but may not receive it. Red states, like Arkansas, Texas and West Virginia, get the help they need.

But because no state is totally blue or red, Republican voters have gotten caught up in Trump’s partisan approach to disaster relief, suffering neglect and punishment along with their Democratic neighbors.  

“Families here lost their furnaces. They have no money to replace those. So, we have families that will be cold this winter or will resort to other means to heat their homes, which is a concern for the fire department as well,” said Westernport, Maryland Mayor Judy Hamilton in an interview with reporters last month about the flooding. “There is money that the state has given us that right now we’re using for hot water tanks, looking to provide furnaces, those types of things for our residents.”

Although only 34% of Marylanders voted for Trump in 2024, Westernport, a town of roughly 1,800, is Trump country. In mid-May, it experienced flooding that left roads damaged and buildings shuttered, including the library and school facilities. Governor Wes Moore, a Democrat and possible presidential contender, applied for $15.8 million in federal assistance but his claim was turned down. 

“We met the criteria,” Hamilton said in an interview with The Washington Post. “So, we’re confused, and we don’t understand why we were not given the FEMA assistance.”

(I reached out to Hamilton for a comment but her office replied that because of harassment and threats they have decided to not do any interviews with the press.)

Moore and other Democratic governors don’t share Hamilton’s confusion about what is happening. Trump is doling out favors to like-minded friends and withholding aid from people he disagrees with. 

“I’ve stopped trying to do the mental gymnastics of trying to understand how this administration is making its decisions, or what to expect when it comes to partnership with them,” Moore told reporters. “What I do know is the decision that they made, it is petty, it is partisan, and it is punishing and is deeply unfair to the people of Allegany and Garrett County.”

Blue states have had to stretch their budgets to make up for the lack of federal dollars, allocating funds to assist residents in the path of natural disasters, which will be increasingly common as climate change worsens. But local and state funding and expertise can’t match what the federal government can do.

Moreover, by reserving taxpayer money for Republican-controlled states, Trump is setting up a scenario where Republican governors can tout achievements around their disaster response, while Democrats will be left explaining their Trump-inflicted failures. 

According to an Economist/YouGov poll taken last month, some two-thirds of Americans support the Federal Emergency Management Agency, with 36% favoring an expansion and 30% saying the agency should remain the same size. Since 2011, state governments have gotten $68.2 billion in FEMA aid, excluding money for oil spills and the pandemic according to the Associated Press. Only 9% of Americans favor Trump making good on his campaign threat to eliminate the agency.

This broad support attests to the agency’s resilience to the misinformation spread by the president. In 2024, Trump spun a tale about FEMA’s partisan response to Hurricane Helene in North Carolina that took hold among some residents. That’s created the kind of partisan split that seems to follow everything Trump touches, with 1% of Democrats and 18% of Republicans wanting to see the agency eliminated. 

“FEMA has always been bipartisan because when it’s your time, you don’t want another delegation from another state to vote against support, but in an increasingly partisan world it’s not a surprise, [although] I’ve never seen it at a presidential level,” said Susan L. Cutter, co-director of the Hazards Vulnerability & Resilience Institute at the University of South Carolina, in an interview. 

She added that FEMA has now lost a lot of its capacity. “It’s not clear how well they are going to be able to handle a big event.” 

Trump’s misinformation was the backdrop of massive DOGE cuts and also set up comments like this: “This entire agency needs to be eliminated as it exists today and remade into a responsive agency,” Kristi Noem, head of the Department of Homeland Security (which includes FEMA) said last month as federal officials were responding to deadly Texas floods. 

But the agency is being remade: It is becoming yet another vehicle for Trump’s petty grievances. For the president, punishment is the coin of the realm, even if his supporters become collateral damage in the process. 

Peak hurricane season begins in late August and runs through September, providing another test for the administration in handling disasters. It will also offer another opportunity for the administration to respond in a nonpartisan way. Elected officials from both parties, but particularly Republicans, might want to start reminding Trump that his supporters are everywhere and need help too, even if their neighbors voted against him. 

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This column reflects the personal views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Nia-Malika Henderson is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. A former senior political reporter for CNN and the Washington Post, she has covered politics and campaigns for almost two decades.

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