{"id":1048534,"date":"2024-10-03T16:29:54","date_gmt":"2024-10-03T20:29:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/?p=1048534"},"modified":"2024-10-03T16:29:55","modified_gmt":"2024-10-03T20:29:55","slug":"icymi-helene-isnt-the-first-time-trump-inserted-politics-into-a-natural-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-helene-isnt-the-first-time-trump-inserted-politics-into-a-natural-disaster\/","title":{"rendered":"ICYMI: Helene Isn\u2019t the First Time Trump Inserted Politics Into a Natural Disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"341\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image.png?w=1024\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1038290\" srcset=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image.png 1500w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image.png?resize=300,100 300w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image.png?resize=768,256 768w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image.png?resize=1024,341 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key Point:<\/strong> \u201c[A] review of Trump\u2019s record by POLITICO\u2019s E&amp;E News and interviews with two former Trump White House officials show that the former president was flagrantly partisan at times in response to disasters and on at least three occasions hesitated to give disaster aid to areas he considered politically hostile or ordered special treatment for pro-Trump states.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eenews.net\/articles\/helene-isnt-the-first-time-trump-inserted-politics-into-a-natural-disaster\/\"><strong>E&amp;E News<\/strong><\/a><strong>: Helene isn\u2019t the first time Trump inserted politics into a natural disaster<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By: Scott Waldman and Thomas Frank<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>[A] review of Trump\u2019s record by POLITICO\u2019s E&amp;E News and interviews with two former Trump White House officials show that the former president was flagrantly partisan at times in response to disasters and on at least three occasions hesitated to give disaster aid to areas he considered politically hostile or ordered special treatment for pro-Trump states.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Mark Harvey, who was Trump\u2019s senior director for resilience policy on the National Security Council staff, told E&amp;E News on Wednesday that <strong>Trump initially refused to approve disaster aid for California after deadly wildfires in 2018 because of the state\u2019s Democratic leanings.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Trump changed his mind after Harvey pulled voting results to show him that heavily damaged Orange County, California, had more Trump supporters than the entire state of Iowa, Harvey said.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>\u201cWe went as far as looking up how many votes he got in those impacted areas \u2026 to show him these are people who voted for you,\u201d<\/strong> said Harvey, who recently endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris alongside more than 100 other Republican former national security officials.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Both Harvey and Olivia Troye, a former Trump White House homeland security adviser who backed up Harvey\u2019s claim, say Trump is approaching Hurricane Helene with a similar mindset. They say he is politicizing a disaster that has killed more than 170 people in six states. And Troye, who has endorsed Harris for president, accused Trump of trying to divert attention from his own political liabilities on disaster responses.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>She said if Trump wins the White House again, he will view disasters through a political lens that values personal loyalty over damage considerations.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u201cIt\u2019s not going to be about that American voter out there who isn\u2019t even really paying attention to politics, and their house is gone, and the president of the United States is judging them for how they voted, and they didn\u2019t even vote,\u201d Troye said in an interview Wednesday.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Troye, who played a lead role in federal disaster response, said local political leaders regularly called her office begging for help because Trump refused to sign documents approving aid.<\/strong> Troye said she had to repeatedly enlist former Vice President Mike Pence to apply pressure.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Added Harvey: <strong>\u201cThere\u2019s no empathy for the survivors. It is all about getting your photo-op, right? Disaster theater to make him look good.\u201d<\/strong><br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In early 2019, shortly after taking office, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida met with Trump at the White House to ask a favor.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Months earlier, while DeSantis was running for governor, Hurricane Michael had caused massive damage in the Florida Panhandle.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>DeSantis asked: Would the president order the Federal Emergency Management Agency to pay 100 percent of recovery costs instead of its customary 75 percent?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u201cThis is Trump country \u2014 and they need your help,\u201d DeSantis told the president, according to the Republican governor\u2019s autobiography, \u201cThe Courage to Be Free.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>\u201cThey love me in the Panhandle,\u201d Trump replied<\/strong>, according to DeSantis\u2019 book, published in 2023 as he was preparing to run for president. <strong>\u201cI must have won 90 percent of the vote out there. Huge crowds. What do they need?\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Point: \u201c[A] review of Trump\u2019s record by POLITICO\u2019s E&amp;E News and interviews with two former Trump White House officials show that the former president was flagrantly partisan at times in response to disasters and on at least three occasions hesitated to give disaster aid to areas he considered politically hostile or ordered special treatment [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":263,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1048534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>ICYMI: Helene Isn\u2019t the First Time Trump Inserted Politics Into a Natural Disaster - Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-helene-isnt-the-first-time-trump-inserted-politics-into-a-natural-disaster\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-10-03T20:29:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-10-03T20:29:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image.png?w=1024\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Claire DePree\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Claire DePree\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-helene-isnt-the-first-time-trump-inserted-politics-into-a-natural-disaster\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-helene-isnt-the-first-time-trump-inserted-politics-into-a-natural-disaster\/\",\"name\":\"ICYMI: Helene Isn\u2019t the First Time Trump Inserted Politics Into a Natural Disaster - Democrats\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-helene-isnt-the-first-time-trump-inserted-politics-into-a-natural-disaster\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-helene-isnt-the-first-time-trump-inserted-politics-into-a-natural-disaster\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image.png?w=1024\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-10-03T20:29:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-10-03T20:29:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#\/schema\/person\/c31239f43161314a03057960c56c0564\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-helene-isnt-the-first-time-trump-inserted-politics-into-a-natural-disaster\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-helene-isnt-the-first-time-trump-inserted-politics-into-a-natural-disaster\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-helene-isnt-the-first-time-trump-inserted-politics-into-a-natural-disaster\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image.png\",\"width\":1500,\"height\":500},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-helene-isnt-the-first-time-trump-inserted-politics-into-a-natural-disaster\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"ICYMI: Helene Isn\u2019t the First Time Trump Inserted Politics Into a Natural Disaster\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/\",\"name\":\"Democrats\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#\/schema\/person\/c31239f43161314a03057960c56c0564\",\"name\":\"Claire DePree\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/262c0b3f1914330fe3241c699fd21798ee92a8504fc6296028e8fa17334d1151?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/262c0b3f1914330fe3241c699fd21798ee92a8504fc6296028e8fa17334d1151?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Claire DePree\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/author\/depreec\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"ICYMI: Helene Isn\u2019t the First Time Trump Inserted Politics Into a Natural Disaster - Democrats","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-helene-isnt-the-first-time-trump-inserted-politics-into-a-natural-disaster\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_site_name":"Democrats","article_published_time":"2024-10-03T20:29:54+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-10-03T20:29:55+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image.png?w=1024","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Claire DePree","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Claire DePree","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-helene-isnt-the-first-time-trump-inserted-politics-into-a-natural-disaster\/","url":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-helene-isnt-the-first-time-trump-inserted-politics-into-a-natural-disaster\/","name":"ICYMI: Helene Isn\u2019t the First Time Trump Inserted Politics Into a Natural Disaster - Democrats","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-helene-isnt-the-first-time-trump-inserted-politics-into-a-natural-disaster\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-helene-isnt-the-first-time-trump-inserted-politics-into-a-natural-disaster\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image.png?w=1024","datePublished":"2024-10-03T20:29:54+00:00","dateModified":"2024-10-03T20:29:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#\/schema\/person\/c31239f43161314a03057960c56c0564"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-helene-isnt-the-first-time-trump-inserted-politics-into-a-natural-disaster\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-helene-isnt-the-first-time-trump-inserted-politics-into-a-natural-disaster\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-helene-isnt-the-first-time-trump-inserted-politics-into-a-natural-disaster\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image.png","width":1500,"height":500},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-helene-isnt-the-first-time-trump-inserted-politics-into-a-natural-disaster\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"ICYMI: Helene Isn\u2019t the First Time Trump Inserted Politics Into a Natural Disaster"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/","name":"Democrats","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#\/schema\/person\/c31239f43161314a03057960c56c0564","name":"Claire DePree","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/262c0b3f1914330fe3241c699fd21798ee92a8504fc6296028e8fa17334d1151?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/262c0b3f1914330fe3241c699fd21798ee92a8504fc6296028e8fa17334d1151?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Claire DePree"},"url":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/author\/depreec\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/263"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1048534"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1048535,"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048534\/revisions\/1048535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1048534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1048534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1048534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}