Donald Trump on Friday declared that he won’t approve any federal aid for California’s wildfire recovery unless the state makes major changes to its election laws. Specifically, Trump said he wants California to pass a voter ID law before he’ll sign off on any disaster relief funding.
Trump was in Asheville, North Carolina, checking out damage from Hurricane Helene when he called out FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) for what he claimed was a mishandling of relief efforts. He said FEMA “has really let us down,” though he didn’t explain exactly what went wrong. Trump suggested that the White House and the Republican National Committee would take charge of distributing relief money instead of FEMA, adding that North Carolina’s governor and some local Republicans would work directly with the White House to get things done quickly.
He said, “We’re going to supply the money, the supply, a lot of the money. Maybe you have to chip in something like maybe 25 percent or whatever, but we’re going to get it done as quickly as we can.”
But things got even more interesting when Trump turned his attention to California, where wildfires have wreaked havoc on the Los Angeles area. Trump said he’d only approve relief for California if the state first implemented voter ID laws. He argued that without such laws, “the people don’t have a voice because you don’t know who is voting. It’s very corrupt.”
Trump’s demand for voter ID laws in California is part of his long-standing claim that elections are tainted by fraud, even though he’s lost the state in every election he’s run in.
During a meeting with local officials, Trump said, “I want to see two things in Los Angeles: Voter ID so that the people have a chance to vote. And I want to see the water be released and come down into Los Angeles and throughout the state.”
Trump also suggested that the state’s water policies, which have long been a point of contention, need to be addressed before the state gets any help. He didn’t go into details about what kind of changes he’s looking for.
This isn’t the first time Trump has used disaster aid as a bargaining chip. During his first term, he often said he wouldn’t help states with Democratic governors unless they were “nice” to him. There were also instances where he delayed or denied aid to Democratic-led states, accusing their governors of not being cooperative.
On top of his demands for California, Trump also said he was planning an executive order to “fundamentally reform or get rid of FEMA,” though such an action is complicated since FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security and can’t simply be dissolved by executive order.
