An investigation by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) found that FEMA employees refused to visit houses with pro-Trump signs.
“The federal government was withholding aid against Americans in crisis based on their political beliefs—this should horrify every American, regardless of political persuasion,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. “For years, FEMA employees under the Biden Administration intentionally delayed much-needed aid to Americans suffering from natural disasters on purely political grounds. They deliberately avoided houses displaying support for President Trump and the Second Amendment, illegally collected and stored information about survivors’ political beliefs, and failed to report their malicious behavior. We will not let this stand.”
A whistleblower revealed in 2024 that FEMA employees were instructed to skip over homes displaying political signs supporting President Trump in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton. The official who ordered the matter was later fired.
“FEMA failed to maintain data integrity and fairness in its determinations regarding disaster relief assistance,” the DHS report, dated August 2025, states. “The information collected by FEMA about political beliefs was irrelevant and unnecessary for providing disaster relief. The collection and use of the political information compromised the data quality and integrity, further violating the Privacy Act of 1974.”
DHS explained that while former officials claimed such incidents were not widespread, the review’s conclusion suggests these abuses date back to 2021’s Hurricane Ida. The DHS Privacy Office “found that FEMA impermissibly collected prohibited information at least dating back to the Hurricane Ida disaster in September 2021,” the report says, urging FEMA to “trust and demonstrate its commitment to providing equitable disaster relief to all citizens, thereby upholding the principles of fairness and impartiality that are fundamental to its mission.”
