Small towns that overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 election are now facing increased vulnerability to deadly natural disasters after Trump cut Federal Emergency Management Agency funding.
According to The Associated Press, these towns are losing millions of dollars that were allocated to them by the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, which provided funding for projects to protect core infrastructure from weather events like hurricanes and floods.
But on April 4, the Trump administration ended that program, claiming in a FEMA press release authorized by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that it was “wasteful” and politicized. The administration did not provide any evidence to support these claims.
Since the start of his second term, Trump has gone to war against FEMA, and his Cabinet is taking actions to fulfill his pledge to “eliminate” FEMA.
While the Trump team hasn’t spelled out why it opposes the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, it’s highly likely that it’s because of the program’s ties to the Biden administration.
While the program was initiated during Trump’s first term, President Joe Biden significantly increased funding as part of his attempt to fight climate change, which Trump has falsely described as a “hoax.”
As part of Biden’s 2021 infrastructure law, $1 billion was allocated to the FEMA program. Trump, on the other hand, infamously failed to pass an infrastructure package during his first term, despite frequent promises of an “infrastructure week.” Many of Trump’s actions have been done to spite Biden and his achievements.
Related | Trump’s dumb and dangerous trade war will hurt red states the most
Now, the towns most affected by Trump’s FEMA cuts are in the heart of Trump country. For example, Trump won North Carolina’s Cabarrus County by more than 7 percentage points over Vice President Kamala Harris. Mount Pleasant, a town of just more than 1,600 residents in Cabarrus County, is expected to significantly suffer from Trump’s cuts to FEMA.
Jim Quick, vice chairman of the Cabarrus County Republican Party, told AP that despite the direct impact, Republicans in the area are unlikely to pull their support from Trump. And Republican officials from other affected areas have spoken out against the cuts.
“This program is a hand-up, not a hand-out, to at-risk communities who have suffered catastrophic weather events,” GOP Rep. Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania said in a statement.
And during a speech on the Senate floor, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana admitted that the program is a “lifesaver and a cost-saver.”
“This isn’t waste,” Cassidy said.
Republican voters have been convinced by figures like Trump and outlets like Fox News that Democrats allowed wasteful government programs to flourish. But now in office, Trump continues to make life more difficult and dangerous for the people who supported him the most.