Trump could play politics with California disaster relief, emergency experts warn

When the Big One or another major disaster hits California, the emergency response will need to be massive. Fixing roads and other infrastructure; restoring power and cellphone service; providing food, shelter and and other essentials.

For decades, state officials have operated knowing the federal government would step in almost immediately when they request help with response and recovery, including by providing hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance. However, California and federal disaster recovery officials say they’re concerned that President Donald Trump may retaliate against the state by delaying or withholding major disaster aid.

And they’re sounding the alarm.

“ We never really thought about what the president would do if a disaster were to happen,” said one longtime Federal Emergency Management Agency insider.

But today: “You don't really have any idea which way it would go,” said the California-based FEMA employee who spoke anonymously for fear of professional retribution. “ Everyone just has to plan to be self reliant. And I'm not talking just individuals, but the states.  Because honestly it's really unpredictable to know what you can rely on.”

Emergency management professionals and observers told LAist they now expect that offers of federal help from the Trump administration will come with strings attached.

“Disaster declarations, especially in California, will be conditional on political policies being made in the state,” the FEMA employee said.

It’s a reality state leaders are preparing for.

“The governor basically told us that we need to think through when the next disaster happens and there's no federal assistance,” said Brian Ferguson, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s deputy cabinet secretary for emergency management.  ”The modern era of emergency management, which started under Jimmy Carter, is forever changing.”

Some experts told LAist it’s unlikely Trump would flat-out deny aid to California — the optics would be too bad, they said. But they did say delays wouldn’t be a surprise.

Their concern is rising as the broader system of disaster response is compromised by cuts and attrition in FEMA and other agencies, leaving the state and its nearly 40 million residents even more vulnerable to disasters.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said FEMA is “focused on warranted, non-political disaster response.”

“In California and throughout the country, FEMA remains fully prepared and capable of responding to natural disasters,” the spokesperson said via email.

Before publication, the agency did not respond to a request seeking the name of the spokesperson and did not agree to a phone interview.

Why insiders are worried

Myriad signs point toward the likelihood Trump could curtail or deny disaster assistance.

During the 2018 Camp Fire, which destroyed the Northern California town of Paradise, Trump waffled on giving aid until he was told that it was his supporters who were affected.

“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,” a former Trump aide told Politico then.

Trump also denied aid to California after a string of wildfires — including the Creek, Bobcat and El Dorado blazes — in 2020, according to CNN, before changing his mind.

During his campaign in 2024, he talked about denying disaster aid.

“We’re not giving any of that fire money that we send you all the time for all the fire, forest fires that you have,” he said in the Central Valley, according to KQED.

And he threatened to withhold wildfire money in response to California’s water management policies.

“The level at which this has become politicized is unlike anything we've seen,” said Mark Ghilarducci, who ran the California governor’s Office of Emergency Services from 2012 to 2022.

Even now, California is waiting on $34 billion of wildfire aid requested by Newsom after the L.A. fires. It includes requests to Congress for more than $20 billion to help rebuild communities.

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It’s not just the threats to disaster response and recovery funds that have observers worried. It’s also a pullback from funding disaster preparation.

In April, FEMA said it was ending its Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Program, calling it “another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program … more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters.”

The program was supposed to provide almost $33 million in funding to help reduce Land movement in Rancho Palos Verdes has slowed down, but the city is bracing for winter rains, according to a lawsuit filed by California and other states in response. Other projects on the chopping block were $21 million for flood mitigation in Sacramento and $32 million to retrofit a hospital in rural Kern County.

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What’s happening inside FEMA 

Several officials told LAist that even if aid is granted, so much damage has been done to the emergency management system that immediate response and long-term recovery will likely be compromised.

The California-based FEMA official said Region 9 — which responds to disasters in California, Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii — has been hemorrhaging employees with extensive experience in disasters.

 ”Most people at FEMA just don't know what the future really holds, so they’re looking for other jobs,” the official said.

Between January and June of this year, the number of FEMA employees fell by about 2,500, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office. The losses include 20 senior executives. Exact numbers for Region 9 weren’t immediately available.

There’s an air of unease among federal emergency response workers, said a former White House employee who worked on emergency management and requested anonymity because of the fear of harassment. Those workers worry they could rush to help in the immediate aftermath of a disaster but then be second-guessed by a presidential administration that might see them as assisting a political enemy, the former official said.

“ The smallest little things that run counter to the narrative that this administration prefers  run the risk of retribution,” the person said.

Emergency officials may worry they could be fired or “reassigned to ICE or something like that.”

“Whether it's happening or not,” the person said, “I think the environment has been created where people feel fearful of that.”

Meanwhile, Southern Californians affected by the January fires already have struggled with what they say is a lack of federal support.

“The federal government was always a backstop in times of need. And it's very possible that there's no additional help coming beyond the state and local responders.  So we're going to adjust to that reality,” said Ferguson, the senior Newsom adviser.

But, Ferguson added, the smaller, rural, Trump-voting parts of California would be hit most heavily by a federal pullback.

“With FEMA  stepping back, we're actually going to be less ready at a local level for whatever the next disaster is,” he said.

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