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President Donald Trump has responded to the devastating floods in central Texas the way presidents usually respond to natural disasters — by offering unconditional aid, comfort and condolences.
But it’s a different story for California, which was ravaged by wildfires that occurred in January near the end of the Biden administration. Trump spent the aftermath of that disaster blasting Democrats for allegedly “mismanaging” the fires. More importantly, Congress has yet to act on California’s request for $40 billion in federal relief.
That’s according to a new report from The Washington Post. The outlet noted that Trump has tied the approval of relief to pullbacks in policies he perceives to be liberal, while making no such threats to Texas after the flood.
The Post quoted California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who expressed frustration over Trump’s posture toward providing basic aid to the state.
“In Texas, they have very different points of view than we do in California on policy, but I would never imagine conditioning or arguing that our congressional delegation condition aid to Texas until they changed some policy on an ancillary issue,” Newsom said.
This isn’t to say that California hasn’t received any aid. The Post noted that the Trump administration followed through on the Biden administration’s promise to provide recovery costs to California for the first 180 days. The state also received $3 billion of the $40 billion it requested.
Still, the diverging rhetoric around disaster relief for red states compared to blue states highlights other moves Trump has made. These include widespread cuts to agencies and staff that address weather forecasting, disaster preparedness and disaster relief.
Trump has lashed out at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and openly stated his wish to dissolve it. The administration has also targeted the National Weather Service (NWS), having cut about 600 employees as part of the U.S DOGE Service‘s assault on the federal government.
These cuts may also extend to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The president has proposed a 28% budget cut to NOAA, which has yet to be approved by Congress. In contrast, Trump has proposed a 6.7% budget increase for the NWS.
