WASHINGTON – Former President Donald Trump criticized the Biden administration’s response to the widespread devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, even as his supporters have called for cuts to federal agencies that warn of weather disasters and deliver relief to hard-hit communities.
As president, Trump delayed disaster aid for hurricane-devastated Puerto Rico and diverted money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in order to finance an effort to return undocumented migrants to Mexico. And Project 2025, backed by Trump supporters, would restructure FEMA to limit aid to states and says that the National Weather Service, which provides crucial data on hurricanes and other storms, “should be broken up and downsized.”
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Trump claimed without evidence Monday that the Biden administration and North Carolina's Democratic governor were “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.” And Trump adviser Stephen Miller said President Joe Biden “failed to evacuate or rescue” U.S. citizens, “just like you failed in Afghanistan.''
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said officials have rescued and supported more than 1,400 people in areas impacted by the storm.
"This is what they do,″ she said, referring to rescue efforts by FEMA and other federal agencies.
“It doesn’t matter which state it is. It doesn’t matter if it’s a red state or blue state,'' Jean-Pierre said Monday. "This is their job — to get food there, to get generators there, to save some lives, to rescue people. And so we are very proud of the work that they’ve done.″
Biden has approved major disaster declarations for Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina, allowing survivors to access funds and resources to jumpstart their recovery immediately. FEMA and other federal agencies, along with private businesses and nonprofit and faith-based organizations, are responding to the disaster in at least seven states, from Florida to Virginia.
The death toll from the storm surpassed 130 people, with some of the worst damage caused by inland flooding in western North Carolina.
On Mondy, Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running against Trump in the presidential election, visited FEMA headquarters in Washington.
She called the devastation “heartbreaking” and vowed that she and Biden will make sure the impacted communities “get what they need to recover,” adding: “The true character of the nation is revealed in moments of hardship.”
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell surveyed damage with North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper on Monday. She called flooding in the state “historic” and said the storm caused significant infrastructure damage to water systems, communication, roads, and critical transportation routes in multiple states, complicating recovery efforts.
During Trump’s term as president, he visited numerous disaster zones, including the aftermaths of hurricanes, tornados and shootings. But the trips sometimes elicited controversy such as when he tossed paper towels to cheering residents in Puerto Rico in 2017 in the wake of Hurricane Maria.
It also wasn’t until years later, just weeks before the 2020 presidential election, that Trump’s administration released $13 billion in assistance for the territory. A federal government watchdog found that officials hampered an investigation into delays in aid delivery.
Democrats in Congress also criticized Trump for transferring $155 million from FEMA’s operating budget to fund operations to return migrants to Mexico. FEMA officials said at the time that the transfer would not impact disaster relief, but organizations representing emergency planners criticized the move.
Trump also insisted that Alabama, along with the Carolinas and Georgia, would be hit “harder than anticipated” by Hurricane Dorian in 2019. Trump displayed a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration map that was altered with a black Sharpie marker to extend the hurricane’s projected path to include Alabama.
Democrats and some voices in the scientific community have zeroed in on Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s 900-page blueprint of a hard-right turn in U.S. government and society, as proof that a second Trump administration would gut the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center.
Project 2025 calls for refocusing the National Weather Service on "commercial operations,” arguing that it should simply collect data for “private companies such as AccuWeather,” effectively ending public weather forecasting.
The document also calls for the next administration to review the work of the National Hurricane Center and says data collected by the center should be presented neutrally, "without adjustments intended to support any one side in the climate debate.”
Trump has denied that Project 2025 has anything to do with his campaign or second-term agenda. But he previously praised Heritage for the effort, which involved many conservatives who worked in or with his first administration.
During an appearance Monday in Valdosta, Georgia, Trump suggested that Republican Gov. Brian Kemp had been unable to get in touch with Biden regarding relief. But Kemp told reporters that he spoke with Biden the day before and that the president said to “call him directly” if the state has additional needs. “I appreciate that,” said Kemp.
FEMA uses its disaster relief fund to coordinate the federal response to major disasters. It pays for debris removal, repair of public infrastructure and financial assistance for survivors, among other things. The temporary spending bill passed and signed into law last week pumped about $20 billion into the fund and gave FEMA the ability to spend that money more quickly.
That should help the agency respond to the most immediate needs, but lawmakers from both parties recognize that additional money will be needed in the coming months. Lawmakers are expected to return to Washington shortly after the November election and negotiate a full-year spending bill when many lawmakers will seek billions of dollars more for the disaster relief fund.
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Associated Press writers Stephen Groves, Will Weissert and Kevin Freking in Washington, Jill Colvin in New York and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this story.