Trump Refused to Approve Wildfire Aid Until He Learned Affected Areas Were MAGA: Report

Source: rollingstone

37 Comments

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  2. ***From Rolling Stone’s Nikki McCann Ramirez:***

    *The former president has a history of tying aid for natural disasters to the politics of those affected.*

    As the death toll from Hurricane Helene surpasses 200 people and the Southeast continues to reel from the disaster, Donald Trump is working overtime to politicize the tragedy into an attack against his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.

    Despite governors from both political parties lauding of the Biden administration’s response, Trump is insisting the federal government has abandoned affected communities.

    Earlier this week, Trump baselessly claimed that “the Federal Government, and the Democrat Governor of [North Carolina are] going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas,” ahead of a visit to a disaster zone in Valdosta, Georgia. But for all of the former president’s posturing as a capable leader who would better handle the crisis, his record in the White House says otherwise.

    According to a Thursday report from E&E News, in 2018 — as wildfires ravaged large swaths of California — Trump initially refused to approve aid to the state because he felt some of the affected regions didn’t like him enough.

    Read more: [https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-delayed-wildfire-aid-california-1235124062/](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-delayed-wildfire-aid-california-1235124062/)

  3. Zealousideal_Ad_9623 on

    “We went as far as looking up how many votes he got in those impacted areas … to show him these are people who voted for you,” Harvey recalled. His account was backed up by former Trump White House Homeland Security Adviser Olivia Troy.

    Not hyperbole at all, Trump is a fucking psychopath.

  4. > the former president only approved the aid after being shown data proving that the affected counties contained a sufficient amount of his supporters. …..“We went as far as looking up how many votes he got in those impacted areas to show him these are people who voted for you,”

    Pure Evil

  5. Just the kind of petty childishness I’d expect from this idiot.

    Giving him a second term as president will be like giving a machine-gun to a baboon – he’ll just hurt a lot of people and shit everywhere.

  6. I hope one day our lawmakers patch up all the holes of corruption and divisiveness this man poked in our democracy so that it can’t happen again. 

  7. ExoticEmployment8558 on

    On brand for a guy that only cares about himself…and those who kiss the ring.

  8. ohulittlewhitepoodle on

    It’s just totally depressing. This would be a huge scandal if Biden staff said he had done this. Trump supporters wont even hear about this or care.

  9. This was when he still had his faculties “together” too.

    Not so much these days.

  10. This is the weaponization of the Federal Government to punish political opponents. Fascism 101

  11. More than once during his term Trump did similar things, withholding needed aid or funding or something until the governor of the state in need sucked up to him and spoke nicely of him, especially if it’s a state with a governor that had ever criticized him. Just look at his response to Covid, especially in the early days of the pandemic. As it was mostly affecting blue states at the time Trump didn’t do a damn thing.

    That’s one of the biggest differences between Trump and Biden, Biden hasn’t hesitated to send assistance to whatever state needed it after a natural disaster or something even when the governor of the state is one that has criticized or even openly bad mouthed him while Trump would withhold assistance the people of a state needed until the governor sucked up to him.

  12. We knew that Trump and his administration were primarily concerned with representing ONLY their constituents. That’s why MAGA keeps voting for him. Who wouldn’t?

    Unfortunately that’s just a grifters game as Trump only REALLY care about himself. Exhibit #1 is how quickly he flipped and sold out his Jan 6th “follows” and left them to rot in jail. Even now admitting it was all for his fantasy!

    Eventually the adults will have to vote and take the reins back. I can only hope they are more progressive.

  13. yep, trump’s a piece of shit. he does this ALL the time. he’s always playing politics with government agencies and general government function.

    # Trump, in reversal, approves California wildfire aid

    [https://www.reuters.com/article/world/trump-in-reversal-approves-california-wildfire-aid-idUSKBN27202M/](https://www.reuters.com/article/world/trump-in-reversal-approves-california-wildfire-aid-idUSKBN27202M/)

    **in 2018:**

    # Trump threatens to pull federal funding for California wildfires over ‘gross mismanagement’

    >President Donald Trump woke up in Paris on Saturday in the mood to make threats toward California as it deals with deadly wildfires in Northern California and hundreds of smoldering homes in Southern California. In an angry tweet, the president threatened to pull federal funding for the state if nothing is done to “remedy” the situation.

    [https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-threatens-pull-federal-funding-california-wildfires-gross/story?id=59102371](https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-threatens-pull-federal-funding-california-wildfires-gross/story?id=59102371)

    **in 2019:**

    # California fires: Trump threatens to pull federal aid

    >Nearly 100,000 acres have been destroyed by wildfires in recent weeks, and thousands have been forced from their homes.

    >Mr Trump blamed Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, saying he had done a “terrible job of forest management”.

    [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50284656](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50284656)

    **in 2020:**

    # Trump administration rejects California’s disaster assistance request for wildfires

    >The Trump administration has rejected California’s request for a disaster declaration for six destructive wildfires that burned hundreds of thousands of acres across the state, including a massive central California wildfire that has become the single largest in state history.

    [https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/15/politics/trump-california-fire-disaster-assistance/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/15/politics/trump-california-fire-disaster-assistance/index.html)

    **this is Sept 16, 2024:**

    # Trump threatens to withhold wildfire funding unless California sends more water to farmers

    >On Friday, Sept. 13, former president Donald Trump visited Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., where he held a news conference to discuss a land movement crisis the area had been experiencing.

    >During his address, he said that, if elected, he would withhold federal aid for Californian wildfires if Governor Newsom did not change water policies. Trump said he wanted California to allow more water to be diverted to farmers rather than allowed to flow into the delta.

    [https://krcrtv.com/news/local/trump-threatens-to-withhold-wildfire-funding-unless-california-sends-more-water-to-farmers-donald-trump-gavin-newsom-california-wildfires-water-policies-movement-rancho-palos-verdes-federal-aid-address](https://krcrtv.com/news/local/trump-threatens-to-withhold-wildfire-funding-unless-california-sends-more-water-to-farmers-donald-trump-gavin-newsom-california-wildfires-water-policies-movement-rancho-palos-verdes-federal-aid-address)

  14. Steelergrl2310 on

    Guess what voters don’t care or are actually supporting this asinine behavior…?!

  15. MinimumApricot365 on

    There is no other word for this than EVIL.

    This is not politics, this is not factionalism, this is not normal, this is PURE EVIL.

  16. Unlikely_Zucchini574 on

    Same shit, different disaster. He did the same with NYC when Covid was ripping through.

  17. Why is anyone surprised? He was actively tried to kill democrats during COVID by withholding aid to cities.

  18. danceswithsteers on

    This is part of the reason (including his stance on LGBTQ+ issues) why I started saying, for the first time ever, that Trump was, in a very real way, not my President. He clearly believed that he was only President for certain Americans; those that support him.

    As someone close to him said once, “every relationship with him is transactional.”

  19. BaltimoreBaja on

    Eastern and Northern California are incredibly Republican.

    And they want to be their own state. Maybe they should be. But it will never happen because the national media and politicians pretend California, Oregon, etc are 100% commie liberals so those folks are on their own.

    Even though, you know, Kevin McCarthy.

    MAGA eats its own

  20. Alternative_Car_3823 on

    That’s why he’s been lying that the republican areas hit by Helene are being ignored while democrat areas are being prioritized, because it’s exactly the type of disgusting shit he knows he did and would do again. It’s always projection with these people.

  21. damienbarrett on

    What.A.Piece.Of.Shit.

    Sometimes we just have to flush twice. Vote in November. Flush this turd.

  22. If Don could “Off” you for not voting for him he would, and he’d take all your assets.

  23. A similar situation happened in Australia where the PM Scott Morrison was found to be building infrastructure in his followers areas – he and his party were destroyed at the election.

  24. Darth_drizzt_42 on

    It’s genuinely amazing how quickly people forget these trump actively tried to weaponized Covid to commit genocide against blue states. It was just daily stories that he had the feds confiscating aid supplies being shipped to state emergency warehouses, and then ransoming them off to favored republican governors. Shit, remember when the owner of the New England Patriots had to use his private jet to bring in supplies, cause otherwise Trump’s cronies would have confiscated it? Aside from the fact that I wish *someone* would attempt a crimes against humanity case, he did this shit for everything, everywhere.

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