The reach of the Oval Office is hard to fathom from anywhere besides the Resolute Desk, and the far-reaching power of the commander-in-chief is reflected in the fact that one of the more recent scandalous revelations about Donald Trump’s presidency and his election obsession come from a reporter focused on “climate change.”
Scott Waldman at Politico is that reporter, and in covering the devastating California wildfires on his regular beat he turned up a story that claims Trump, while President, withheld disaster aid from the victims until he was shown voter data that satisfied him that the affected area had voted for him in sufficient numbers.
The implication is that a more liberal area than Orange County, the subject of Trump’s reported hesitation — Marin County, say — might have been made to wait longer for federal aid, if that aid was forthcoming at all.
The reluctance and/or denial would be tied directly to the region’s voting record, meaning essentially the federal government would only go to work for the party in power.
The charge, if true, represents such an egregious use of power — similar in ways to the withholding of aid from Ukraine (and the “perfect phone call“) that led to Trump’s first impeachment — that President Joe Biden shared the story.
Writing “You can’t only help those in need if they voted for you. It’s the most basic part of being president, and this guy knows nothing about it,” Biden shared Waldman’s story and castigated his predecessor.
You can’t only help those in need if they voted for you.
It’s the most basic part of being president, and this guy knows nothing about it. https://t.co/FuPHwtlZuu
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 3, 2024
Waldman’s tweet about the story reported that “two former Trump White House officials” revealed to him that “they had to show voter data to Trump to get him to release disaster funding to CA wildfire victims.”
From E&E News, a Politico publication: “Mark Harvey, who was Trump’s senior director for resilience policy on the National Security Council staff, told E&E News on Wednesday that Trump initially refused to approve disaster aid for California after deadly wildfires in 2018 because of the state’s Democratic leanings.