Former President Donald Trump is facing new claims about how he dealt with disaster relief when he was in charge. Two former top officials say Trump didn’t want to send help to areas that didn’t vote for him. The shocking claims come from Mark Harvey, who worked on Trump’s National Security Council, and Olivia Troye, who was a homeland security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence.
Harvey and Troye have revealed that Trump played politics with disaster relief on at least three occasions, putting his own interests ahead of people’s safety. One particularly disturbing incident happened during the California wildfires in 2018. Harvey claims Trump initially refused to approve disaster aid for California because the state typically votes Democratic. Only after staff pointed out that some areas affected by the fires, like Orange County, had supported him in the 2016 election, did Trump change his mind.
“We went as far as looking up how many votes he got in those impacted areas… to show him these are people who voted for you,” Harvey said.
Troye backed up the story, adding that Trump was more concerned about political gain than helping people who were suffering. Olivia, who worked closely with Trump, said she often had to push Vice President Pence to step in and get Trump to approve aid. “It’s not going to be about that American voter out there who isn’t even really paying attention to politics, and their house is gone,” Troye said, warning that if Trump is re-elected in 2024, he will likely continue this political approach to disaster relief.
Harvey also shared his frustration with Trump’s lack of empathy. “There’s no empathy for the survivors. It is all about getting your photo-op, right? Disaster theater to make him look good,” he said. This kind of leadership is risky, especially when people are in danger. It’s clear that Trump’s priority was not saving lives, but boosting his own image.
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Even now, Trump is still spreading false information about how disasters are handled. After Hurricane Helene hit the southern U.S. in September 2024, Trump wrongly said that the Biden administration was ignoring Republican areas. He even claimed that Georgia’s Republican governor couldn’t get in touch with Biden, but the governor himself said this wasn’t true. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to Trump’s claims, saying, “It doesn’t matter which state it is. It doesn’t matter if it’s a red state or blue state. This is their job — to get food there, to get generators there, to save some lives, to rescue people.”
Trump’s way of giving disaster aid shows a bad habit of using help to play politics. Instead of helping people who really need it, he seemed more focused on helping himself and his supporters. With more disasters happening because of climate change, this kind of thinking puts lives in danger. People need leaders who care about everyone, not just the ones who voted for them.
If Trump wins in 2024, the big question is: Will help be fair? Or will people be left to suffer because they didn’t vote for him?
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
