It's Three Times Harder For Blue States To Get Disaster Funding Under Trump

President Donald Trump has rejected disaster aid for Democratic-run states at the highest rate in the 47-year history of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

He approved just 23 percent of disaster funding requests from states with a Democratic governor and two Democratic senators since returning to office 14 months ago. For states with a Republican governor and two Republican senators, it’s the opposite — Trump has approved 89 percent of their requests.

There has never been such a sharp partisan disparity in the approval of federal disaster funds since FEMA was created in 1979, according to a review of 2,500 natural disaster declarations by POLITICO’s E&E News.

The denials have blocked Democratic-led states from getting a total of $250 million in disaster aid that would have been approved by every previous president including Trump in his first term, E&E News found.

Trump rejected most of the requests even after FEMA had documented that the damage met its financial threshold to warrant receiving federal aid.

“Never in my lifetime has a president treated disaster relief as a political cudgel,” Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said after seeing E&E News’ analysis. “What President Trump has done to politicize disaster relief and hold up support for Americans who need it — including my constituents in Washington state — is frankly unforgivable.”

Trump’s recent disaster declarations contrast sharply with his first term, when he approved 93 percent of requests from Democratic-led states — compared to 89 percent from states controlled by Republicans.

Political considerations had “zero” effect on disaster decisions in his first term, said Peter Gaynor, who ran the agency from 2019 to 2021.

“From the administration, the secretary, the president — zero,” Gaynor said about political influence on decisions.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said, “There is no politicization to the President’s decisions on disaster aid.”

“President Trump provides a more thorough review of disaster declaration requests than any Administration has before him — gone are the days of rubber stamping FEMA recommendations,” Jackson said in a statement that did not directly address E&E News’ findings.

The Department of Homeland Security, which houses FEMA, also did not address the partisan disparity in Trump’s approval rates. “Any suggestion that disaster decisions are politically motivated does not reflect how the process works or how FEMA carries out its mission,” DHS said in a statement.

E&E News obtained state documents and reviewed thousands of federal disaster records going back to the start of Republican Ronald Reagan’s presidency in 1981. The review excludes disasters that weren’t caused by natural catastrophes, such as the coronavirus pandemic.

Here are the findings:

• Trump’s 23 percent approval rate of Democratic requests is unprecedented. Every president since Reagan has approved at least 67 percent of requests from Democratic-led states. Republican Presidents George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Trump in his first term each approved a higher percentage of requests from Democratic states than from Republican states.

• Trump has taken 80 days on average to approve or deny requests from Democratic-led states — compared to 39 days for Republican-led states.

• Trump has been openly partisan on social media about using disaster funding for political purposes. He has linked his decisions to grant aid with his electoral victories in Republican-led states.

• Eight out of Trump’s 10 denials for Democratic-led states came despite FEMA having documented high levels of damage after on-the-ground inspections. Previous presidents have rarely denied disaster aid for events that caused as much damage as FEMA found for the eight denials.

• Trump’s denials of Democratic-led states overwhelmingly affected counties that supported him in 2024, suggesting that Trump’s rejections were directed at state leaders who oppose him politically.

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine), asked about E&E News' findings, instead blamed Democrats for slowing the distribution of disaster aid by forcing a partial government shutdown of the Homeland Security Department.

“Senate Democrats have repeatedly blocked attempts to continue vital services,” a spokesperson for committee Republicans, Phoebe Keller, said in a statement, referring to congressional negotiations to end the partial DHS shutdown that began Feb. 14.

Trump has not acted on any disaster requests during the shutdown, which has no effect on his approval rates.

Ignoring FEMA’s advice

Trump’s actions are legal. Federal law gives presidents complete authority over whether and when to approve state disaster requests. Presidential decisions are considered discretionary and cannot be challenged in court under federal disaster law, which says the government “shall not be liable for… the failure to exercise or perform a discretionary function.”

Yet Congress has given FEMA a strong advisory role, which presidents have routinely followed. FEMA makes recommendations to a president on each request for so-called public assistance, after it determines whether the projected costs of cleanup and repairs for an event exceed a threshold the agency sets for each state based on its population.

FEMA’s Public Assistance Program, also known as PA, pays at least 75 percent of the costs of emergency response and infrastructure repairs — roughly $30 billion a year.

It differs from FEMA’s Individual Assistance Program, which gives residents a few thousand dollars for emergency expenses after a disaster.

The agency’s assessments are crucial to determining whether an event meets the statutory definition of a “disaster,” which encompasses events so severe that “effective response is beyond the capabilities” of state and local governments.

“When I was involved, about 100 percent of the time they would make that recommendation for PA approval or denial based on meeting the PA per-capita indicator,” said former FEMA chief of staff Michael Coen, who held senior agency positions under Democratic Presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.

Every president from the second Bush through Biden has approved every PA request when FEMA found the costs of an event exceeded its threshold, according to a review of agency records dating to 2007.

“The thresholds have continued to be a strong guidepost all the way through the Biden administration,” said Andrew Rumbach, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research group, who is tracking disaster declarations in Trump’s second term. “There’s been a pretty durable bipartisan recognition that blue states and red states are affected by disasters. If it becomes a partisan issue, both suffer in the end.”

Trump ended the pattern on April 11 when he rejected a request made in late 2024 by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D), who left office in early 2025. FEMA had documented $34 million in damage from storms and flooding in November 2024 — more than double the agency’s $14.5 million threshold for Washington state.

Trump’s denial seemed to continue the public feud he and Inslee had waged years earlier. Trump took no action during the final four months of his first term on a disaster request by Inslee. Biden approved it shortly after taking office.

‘Very bad signal’

Trump’s decision in April was the first of nine instances in which he denied PA requests that met FEMA’s threshold. Six of them involved states with Democratic governors and two Democratic senators. Two involved states with a mix of Democratic and Republican governors and senators. Only one denial involved a state with a Republican governor and two Republican senators — Nebraska.

In addition, Trump denied two requests for Individual Assistance from Illinois, which has a Democratic governor and two Democratic senators, after FEMA documented enormous damage.

MaryAnn Tierney, a former senior official at FEMA, said the denials are part of the Trump administration’s effort to reduce disaster spending.

“What I see here is an implementation of the policy decision to declare less disasters,” Tierney said in an interview.

Even as Trump has rejected disaster aid requests from Democratic states that far exceeded FEMA’s threshold, he’s approved requests for Republican states that barely exceeded the threshold.

On March 18, 2025, Trump approved disaster aid for Oklahoma after FEMA estimated $7,532,751 in damage — less than $40,000 above the agency threshold.

Democratic governors, meanwhile, were stunned when Trump denied their requests.

“These are very solid disaster [requests] that traditionally have always been granted by the White House,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said in a recent interview, referring to Trump’s rejection of $41 million last year for two weather-related events. The denials “send a very bad signal,” he said.

After Trump rejected aid for Maryland following May flooding, Gov. Wes Moore (D) said the damage “clearly met disaster assistance criteria.”

Washington state officials are still waiting for Trump to decide on a request they submitted in January after major flooding caused $21.4 million in damage to homes. Trump has taken no action on 15 other disaster requests — from Democratic and Republican states as well as native tribes — dating back to Nov. 26.

“Let’s just say, we made our request and we’ll let the system operate,” said Washington state Emergency Management Division Director Robert Ezelle, in an interview.

Asked if he thought politics were involved, Ezelle smiled and said, “I’m afraid I really can’t comment on that.”

‘I have not seen that’

Trump has been openly partisan about disaster aid. On Truth Social, he has boasted about approving money for Republican states where he’s had electoral success.

“I just approved $60.6 million for the Great State of Tennessee (which I won three times!)” Trump wrote on Feb. 6.

“It is my Honor to deliver for the Great State of Alaska, which I won BIG in 2016, 2020, and 2024,” Trump wrote on Oct. 22, 2025, announcing $25 million in disaster aid.

“I won ‘The Show Me State’ three times in 2016, 2020, and 2024, and it is my Honor to deliver for these incredible Patriots!” Trump wrote in an Oct. 22, 2025, post announcing $2.5 million in disaster aid for Missouri.

The posts underscore how Trump is using presidential powers to reward allies.

“What he posts on Truth Social is a political analysis of the state’s voting record and tying that to the decision to award disaster assistance. I have not seen that in the past,” said Sarah Labowitz, a senior fellow who tracks disasters at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a nonprofit research group.

When Trump announced $5.7 million in disaster aid for Kansas on Sept. 11, 2025, he thanked Republican Sens. Roger Marshall and Jerry Moran and Republican House members “for their advocacy for these important recovery funds.”

Trump said nothing about Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat who submitted the disaster request.

Trump used another post about approving $32 million for North Carolina in September to praise Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) and Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley. Trump did not mention Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who has criticized the Trump administration on disaster aid, and derided Whatley’s Democratic opponent, former Gov. Roy Cooper.

On the same day, he rejected disaster requests from Illinois and Maryland, both led by Democrats.

The Trump administration has given no explanation for its denials other than boilerplate language about how disaster aid “is not warranted.”

Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, who has feuded with Trump over immigration enforcement, called Trump’s denials of his two disaster requests last year “a politically motivated decision that punishes thousands of Illinois families in a critical moment of need.”

Trump rejected Pritzker’s requests for aid to help households after FEMA documented $46 million in damage to homes from a July storm and $83 million in home damage from an August storm.

Although FEMA does not set thresholds for approving household assistance, Pritzker’s requests involved enormous residential damage that has always led to aid approval, E&E News found.

“Playing politics with disaster relief funding is a new low, even for the Trump Administration,” Pritzker said.

Natalie Fertig contributed to this report.