The move deepens what Democrats say is the president's politicization of federal emergency management decisions.
President Donald Trump denied disaster aid to four Democratic-led states in a move that is raising new questions about whether he’s injecting political motivations into emergency management decisions.
Trump on Friday rejected $227 million in aid requests from New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Rhode Island for help recovering from a major snowstorm in February. Two days earlier, Trump approved Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster aid for six Republican-led states, while extolling the political virtues of GOP politicians and candidates in the states.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement that “there is no politicization to the President’s decisions on disaster relief,” adding that Trump “provides a more thorough review of disaster declaration requests than any Administration has before him.”
Democrats immediately questioned Trump’s denials, arguing that they follow a pattern disclosed by POLITICO in March of Trump mostly rejecting disaster aid for Democratic-led states while approving it for states that are led by officials in his party.
“On the same day you approved major disaster declarations for several Republican-led states, you chose to leave Rhode Islanders out in the cold,” the state’s congressional delegation — comprising four Democrats — told Trump in a letter Monday. “It is unacceptable to politicize the disaster declaration process.”
New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim, another Democrat, put the onus on Trump to show the public that his disaster policies are untainted by politics.
“If there is a reason other than politics for him and his administration to withhold FEMA assistance, we need an explanation immediately,” he said in a statement.
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