Trump denies extra FEMA funding to people who voted for him in North Carolina | Opinion
Remember when Donald Trump lied about Joe Biden's response to Hurricane Helene? Well, now he's the one denying FEMA assistance as North Carolina struggles to rebuild.
Last September, Hurricane Helene decimated western North Carolina, nearly destroying entire towns and killing 107 people in the state. In February, the state reported that it would cost $60 billion to repair the region.
Despite these costly repairs, President Donald Trump’s administration recently denied the state’s request to extend a Federal Emergency Management Agency program that matched 100% of the costs for eligible recovery expenses. This is after he lied about former President Joe Biden's response to the tragedy.
On April 11, FEMA’s acting administrator sent a letter to Gov. Josh Stein, telling him the extension was “not warranted.” At the time, Stein was visiting people in Newland, North Carolina, who had lost their homes during Hurricane Helene.
The state will have 30 days to appeal the decision.
“I am extremely disappointed and urge the President to reconsider FEMA’s bad decision, even for 90 days,” the governor said in a statement. “Six months later, the people of Western North Carolina are working hard to get back on their feet; they need FEMA to help them get the job done."
I wish I could say that the Trump administration’s decision shocked me. Instead, it’s the exact sort of thing I’ve come to expect from a man who seems to lack empathy for people who aren’t billionaires, even if those people voted for him.
Trump criticized Biden's handling of Hurricane Helene
On the presidential reelection campaign trail, Republican nominee Trump talked about how Biden’s administration was not moving fast enough to assist North Carolina after Hurricane Helene and falsely claimed that this was because it’s a Republican area. He continued to peddle this falsehood as president.
Since Helene hit North Carolina in September, FEMA has spent $861 million on public assistance and money sent directly to households.
“This has been very slow,” Trump said during a January briefing in Fletcher, North Carolina. “I don’t know if that was for political reasons because they lost the state. You know, Biden lost the state. Maybe he felt ‒ he doesn’t care. Maybe there were other reasons.”
While Trump may assume that everyone else is as vindictive as he is, he is the one in charge now. It’s clear from this denial of funding that all of his complaints about Biden were just to score political points.
It would be easy to say this is North Carolinians getting what they deserve. That in voting for Trump, they have lost the right to have their homes repaired and their lives rebuilt. It’s the sort of sentiment that always comes up when bad things happen in red states. That line of thinking is elitist and out of touch, and it won’t endear anyone to the Democratic Party. People still deserve assistance during disasters, regardless of how they voted.
That's something Republicans should consider agreeing with.
Republicans should appeal to their president
Recovery efforts after Hurricane Helene have united Republicans and Democrats in the government. In March, House members of both parties signed onto a letter asking for the reimbursement program to be extended six months.
The bar for Republican lawmakers is dreadfully low, but they should receive some applause for trying to get North Carolinians the help they need. Now, I hope they continue to fight alongside Democrats to appeal this decision.
“I’m focusing on other ways I can make a tangible difference in helping the citizens of Western North Carolina recover more quickly,” Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-North Carolina, emailed the Asheville Citizen-Times, after calling an extension “unprecedented.”
While it is important to continue helping people with FEMA casework and look for new ways to fund recovery efforts, as Edwards is doing, I believe it would be best for him and other members of North Carolina’s Republican Party to locate their spines and stand with Gov. Stein during the appeal process.
The federal government is supposed to help states in times of crisis; it’s clear that Trump would rather hurt people under the guise of cutting costs.
Follow Paste BN columnist Sara Pequeño on X, formerly Twitter, @sara__pequeno