Trump, who called FEMA ‘slow,' is making people wait months for help

E&E News

22-05-2025

Public officials have started pleading with the Trump administration for help in recovering from deadly disasters as President Donald Trump triggers frustration in states struck by tornadoes, floods and storms by taking no action on requests for aid.
Trump has left states, counties and tribes in limbo as he delays making decisions on formal requests for millions of dollars in Federal Emergency Management Agency funding. Some areas that are still reeling from extreme weather are unable to start cleanup.
'We're at a standstill and waiting on a declaration from FEMA,' said Royce McKee, emergency management director in Walthall County, Mississippi, which was hit by tornadoes in mid-March.
Advertisement
The county of 13,000 people can't afford to clean up acres of debris, McKee said, and is waiting for Trump to act on a disaster request that was submitted by Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, on April 1 after the tornadoes killed seven people, destroyed or damaged 671 homes, and caused $18.2 million in public damage.
'I'm disappointed, especially for the people that lost their houses,' McKee said.
Trump himself assailed FEMA in January for being 'very slow.'
The frustration over Trump's handling of disasters is the latest upheaval involving FEMA. Trump recently canceled two FEMA grant programs that gave states billions of dollars a year to pay for protective measures against disasters. The move drew protests from Republican and Democratic lawmakers.
On May 8, Trump fired FEMA leader Cameron Hamilton and replaced him with David Richardson, a former Marine Corps officer who has no experience in emergency management.
At a congressional hearing on Tuesday, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican, pleaded with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to push Trump to approve three disaster requests that Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe, a Republican, had sent to Trump beginning April 2.
'We are desperate for assistance in Missouri,' Hawley said as Noem pledged to help. Her department oversees FEMA.
St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer, whose city was badly damaged by tornadoes earlier this week, told MSNBC: 'What we need right now is federal assistance. This is where FEMA and the federal government have got to come in and help communities. Our city can't shoulder this alone.'
Trump has not acted on 17 disaster requests, a high number for this time of year, according to a FEMA daily report released Wednesday. On the same date eight years ago, during Trump's first presidency, only three disaster requests were awaiting presidential action, the FEMA report from May 21, 2017, shows.
Eleven of the 17 pending disaster requests were sent to Trump more than a month ago.
'This looks to me like, until FEMA's role is clarified, then we're just going to sit on it,' said a former senior FEMA official who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.
Trump has indicated that he wants to shrink the agency, which distributes about $45 billion in disaster aid a year, helps with as many as 100 disasters at a time and, he said, 'has been a very big disappointment.'
'It's very bureaucratic and very slow,' Trump said in January during a visit to disaster-stricken western North Carolina.
President Donald Trump speaks as he meets with homeowners affected by Hurricane Helene in Swannanoa, North Carolina, in January. | Mark Schiefelbein/AP
The Trump administration has made no announcements about how it is handling requests for disaster aid, leaving governors, local officials and individuals uncertain about what to expect.
'A disaster survivor that's waiting for relief — that's the hard part about this,' the former FEMA official said.
In a statement to POLITICO's E&E News, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said the administration wants state and local governments 'to invest in their own resilience before disaster strikes, making response less urgent and recovery less prolonged.'
Trump handles disaster requests 'with great care and consideration, ensuring American tax dollars are used appropriately and efficiently by the states to supplement — not substitute, their obligation to respond to and recover from disasters,' Jackson said.
'Death and destruction'
Despite the absence of an announced policy change, Trump's actions on a handful of disasters indicate that he is making it harder for states to receive FEMA aid for cleanup and rebuilding.
There is no indication of partisan considerations in Trump's actions. Only three of the 17 pending disaster requests came from Democratic governors. Trump made national headlines in April when he denied a request by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Republican who was the White House press secretary during his first presidency.
The denial of Sanders' request for aid to clean up debris and repair electric cooperatives after a tornado outbreak in mid-March exemplifies Trump's new direction. Sanders calculated that the tornadoes caused $11.6 million in public damage, which is more than enough to qualify for FEMA aid.
Under long-standing FEMA policy, the agency sets a population-based damage threshold that states must exceed in order to get money for cleanup and rebuilding. In Arkansas, the threshold is slightly more than $5.8 million — and the state's damage was twice that amount.
Sanders appealed the denial, but Trump again rejected her request for repair money, although he did agree to help 249 households pay for temporary housing and minor home repairs with FEMA aid. The federal funding will amount to about $1 million.
Trump took the same action on aid requests from West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrissey, a Republican, and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, after flooding struck their states in February and April, respectively. In both cases, Trump approved money for households and rejected their funding requests for public rebuilding.
When Trump rejected Washington state's April request for aid to help rebuild public infrastructure following a November flood, Gov. Bob Ferguson, a Democrat, noted that the damage easily exceeded the threshold to qualify for federal money.
'There are very clear criteria to qualify for these emergency relief funds. Washington's application met all of them,' Ferguson said after Trump's denial. Communities 'have been waiting for months' for federal aid, 'and this decision will cause further delay.'
On Tuesday, Beshear sent Trump a new disaster request after tornadoes killed 19 Kentucky residents and caused extensive property damage. Beshear is seeking an 'expedited major disaster' declaration, which presidents typically approve in a day or two.
'This tornado event is devastating. There's no other way to describe the death and destruction this has brought to the community,' Beshear said at a news briefing Tuesday.
Although the request did not calculate the cost of the damage, Kentucky Division of Emergency Management Director Eric Gibson said Tuesday, 'We met a number that is clearly easy for anyone to see that this disaster needs some federal assistance.'
Beshear said Trump called him Sunday after the outbreak and 'pledged to be there for the people of Kentucky.'