Former President Donald Trump has spent this week criticizing Democrats for their response to Hurricane Helene — going so far as to say party leaders aren’t interested in helping Republicans in the hardest-hit areas of southern Appalachia.

During a visit to Valdosta, Georgia, he claimed without evidence that the Biden administration — and Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper — were “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.”

But Trump has his own record to stand on, Scott Waldman and Thomas Frank report.

A review of Trump’s record by POLITICO’s E&E News and interviews with two former Trump White House officials found that the former president was flagrantly partisan at times in response to disasters. On at least three occasions, they said, he hesitated to give disaster aid to areas he considered politically hostile or ordered special treatment for pro-Trump states.

For example, Trump had initially refused to send aid to Orange County, California, after its 2018 wildfires, according to Mark Harvey, who was Trump’s senior director for resilience policy on the National Security Council staff.

Harvey told E&E News that Trump changed his mind after he found that the heavily damaged area of southern California had more Trump supporters than the entire state of Iowa.

“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,” said Harvey, who recently endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris alongside more than 100 other Republican former national security officials.

The exchange — not previously reported — drew responses from President Joe Biden and Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“It’s the most basic part of being president, and this guy knows nothing about it,” Biden posted on X, reacting to a tweet about an earlier version of this article.

Newsom piled on, calling the episode “a glimpse into the future if we elect” Trump.

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request seeking comment.

No flood insurance: Few people in western North Carolina have flood insurance, leaving them vulnerable to financial ruin in the wake of disasters such as Helene, Chelsea Harvey and Tom report.

An analysis by E&E News found that just 0.8 percent of the nearly 700,000 households in the North Carolina counties heavily flooded by Helene have flood insurance through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to agency records.

The state has also devoted relatively little of its federal funding for disaster protection in its western region. That’s even as areas around Asheville, situated on the southern end of the Blue Ridge Mountains, face extreme flood and landslide risks. As global temperatures rise, stronger hurricanes are making their way further inland, beyond the coasts.

That means disasters such as Helene, previously almost unthinkable, may keep happening in the coming decades.

It’s Thursday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO’s Power Switch. I’m your host, Joel Kirkland. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to [email protected].

Today in POLITICO Energy’s podcast: Zack Colman breaks down the world’s lack of a plan for a second Trump presidency.

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/power-switch/2024/10/03/donald-trump-and-the-politics-of-disaster-00182337

SEE ALSO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVzBmlikXGM

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