WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump criticized the Biden administration’s response to the widespread devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, even as his supporters have called for cuts to federal agencies that warn of weather disasters and deliver relief to hard-hit communities.
As president, Trump delayed disaster aid for hurricane-devastated Puerto Rico and diverted money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in order to finance an effort to return undocumented migrants to Mexico. And Project 2025, backed by Trump supporters, would restructure FEMA to limit aid to states and says that the National Weather Service, which provides crucial data on hurricanes and other storms, “should be broken up and downsized.”
Trump claimed without evidence Monday that the Biden administration and North Carolina’s Democratic governor were “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said officials have rescued and supported more than 1,400 people in areas impacted by the storm.
“This is what they do,″ she said, referring to rescue efforts by FEMA and other federal agencies.
“It doesn’t matter which state it is. It doesn’t matter if it’s a red state or blue state,” Jean-Pierre said Monday. “This is their job — to get food there, to get generators there, to save some lives, to rescue people. And so we are very proud of the work that they’ve done.″
Biden has approved major disaster declarations for Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina, allowing survivors to access funds and resources to jumpstart their recovery immediately. FEMA and other federal agencies, along with private businesses and nonprofit and faith-based organizations, are responding to the disaster in at least seven states, from Florida to Virginia.
The death toll from the storm surpassed 130 people, with some of the worst damage caused by inland flooding in western North Carolina.
On Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris visited FEMA headquarters in Washington.
She called the devastation “heartbreaking” and vowed that she and Biden will make sure the impacted communities “get what they need to recover,” adding: “The true character of the nation is revealed in moments of hardship.”
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell surveyed damage with North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper on Monday. She called flooding in the state “historic” and said the storm caused significant infrastructure damage to water systems, communication, roads, and critical transportation routes in multiple states, complicating recovery efforts.
During Trump’s term as president, he visited numerous disaster zones, including the aftermaths of hurricanes, tornados and shootings. But the trips sometimes elicited controversy such as when he tossed paper towels to cheering residents in Puerto Rico in 2017 in the wake of Hurricane Maria.
It also wasn’t until years later, just weeks before the 2020 presidential election, that Trump’s administration released $13 billion in assistance for the territory. A federal government watchdog found that officials hampered an investigation into delays in aid delivery.
Democrats in Congress also criticized Trump for transferring $155 million from FEMA’s operating budget to fund operations to return migrants to Mexico. FEMA officials said at the time that the transfer would not impact disaster relief, but organizations representing emergency planners criticized the move.
Trump also insisted that Alabama, along with the Carolinas and Georgia, would be hit “harder than anticipated” by Hurricane Dorian in 2019. Trump displayed a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration map that was altered with a black Sharpie marker to extend the hurricane’s projected path to include Alabama.
