In May, floods devastated small towns in Maryland’s Allegany and Garrett counties. Roads collapsed. Homes flooded. Schoolchildren had to be ferried to safety. Last November, a bomb cyclone tore across Washington state — destroying lives, homes and sections of the grid.
In both cases, President Trump eventually denied disaster relief for communities in our states. In July, he rejected Maryland’s request for $16 million in disaster aid, just .002 percent the cost of the tax cuts he just signed for the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans. He denied funds to Washington for last fall’s storm in June, just as he has repeatedly denied relief for communities in Washington state throughout his first and second terms.
Storms like these are becoming all too common, due to climate change. In the wake of their destruction, Americans need their government to step up. Instead, Trump is turning his back on disaster victims.
The federal government’s job is clear: to protect people from disaster and help communities recover. At Trump’s direction, FEMA has done the opposite, abandoning its responsibility and shifting the burden onto states like Maryland and Washington.
These states, already strained by tight budgets, cannot realistically respond to multimillion-dollar disasters by themselves. Rather than fulfill his duty, Trump has a record of politicizing aid and withholding it from states that did not vote for him, regardless of the harm suffered by their communities.
While Trump walks away from Americans in crisis, governors, including us, have stepped up to ensure our residents aren’t left to recover alone.
When devastating storms hit Western Maryland this spring, the Moore administration immediately activated the State Disaster Recovery Fund, awarding Allegany County $459,375 to assist in immediate relief efforts, and also moved quickly to unlock an additional $1 million of state funds to help Allegany and Garrett County families repair homes and get back on their feet.
Before leaving office in Washington state earlier this year, the Inslee administration issued an emergency proclamation to make $1 million available through the state’s Individual Assistance Program — funding that is now helping with emergency housing, home repairs and other critical recovery needs after the November storm.
In contrast, not only is Trump denying requests for disaster aid — he is actively dismantling the systems meant to protect us.
He gutted FEMA, slashed the National Weather Service and left nearly half of our forecast offices understaffed. The result? Communities are left unprepared for incoming storms, and help is delayed when it is needed most.
We saw the consequences in Texas this summer, where we watched with heavy hearts as flash flooding took the lives of at least 137 people — in part because the staffing and equipment simply weren’t there.
Trump’s cuts to FEMA delayed critical search-and-rescue operations and left thousands of calls from survivors unanswered — not because we lacked the tools, but because we lacked the leadership.
Just a few days ago, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office concluded that the Trump administration violated the law by withholding funds for FEMA programs providing food and shelter to disaster victims. But real damage has already been done.
Your zip code, income and politics don’t matter when a storm hits. What matters is whether help comes. In a nation as wealthy and capable as ours, it is unacceptable that Americans are left vulnerable to disasters we know are coming.
In Maryland and Washington, we don’t ask who disaster victims voted for. We help them.
We are calling on Trump and the federal government to fulfill its most basic obligation: to prioritize the safety and well-being of all Americans. The White House should answer the call.
Wes Moore is the 63rd governor of the state of Maryland. Jay Inslee is a politician and lawyer who, from 2013 to 2025, served as the 23rd governor of the state of Washington.
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