Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders asks Trump around Fema -disaster help

The Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders asks President Donald Trump to rethink the rejection of an emergency disaster declaration by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) in order to support the recovery of a series of destructive tornados and storms that devastated the red state in March.

Sanders, a former press spokeswoman for the White House of Trump, wrote a long letter to her ex-boss last week, in which the damage caused by the storms was described and ask him to rethink the rejection of the Fema.

“The serious storms and tornados, which occurred on March 14 and 15, 2025, led catastrophic effects throughout the state. The sheer size of this event led to overwhelming quantities of ruins, widespread destruction for houses and business, the tragic loss of three lives and injuries from many other, less than three weeks later. Appeal. “Without the support of an important declaration of disaster, Arkansas will make considerable challenges in taking over the full responsibility and the achievement of an effective recovery from this event. I have found that the severity and size of these storms exceed the state’s skills and affected local governments. As such, the additional federal aid is important.”

It is not surprising that states already have difficulty receiving disaster help under the second Trump government. In January, Trump fully eliminated the agency. Last month, Kristi Noem, Secretary of the Ministry of Homeland, promised to “eliminate” the Fema after a series of layoffs of efficiency of the so -called state efficiency in the agency.

During his first term, Trump had the habit of setting up roadblocks in states to ask for disaster aid, depending on his personal relationship, or the politician management. The President once kept the approval of aids for regions of California until the employees presented him with the evidence that people in the affected areas were actually his fans. In another case, he ignored inquiries from Jay Inslee, a Democrat of Washington, that funds react to a number of forest fires in 2020.

During the election cycle of 2024, Trump incorrectly accused the Fema and Biden administration billions of disaster relief to support migrants without papers, while parts of North Carolina were destroyed by the hurricane Helene to protect themselves for themselves.

As forest fires at the beginning of this year Los Angeles devastated, the President and his GOP allies floated the conditioning aid in California with compliance with their own policy and ideological goals. This included the implementation of voters -id laws and the procedure of immigration.

Trump and the Republicans save the idea of ​​eliminating the agency – because they believe that it would save money, or they want states to cope with their own disaster aid or both. But as Sanders wrote to Trump in her plea, Arkansas cannot be able without federal money. The thing about natural disasters is that you neither have a conception of national borders, nor checks your voter registration before you map your house. That is why there is an agency like FEMA to coordinate the reaction to disasters that include several states, some of which may not have the resources to combat destruction.

While Trump and Noem make their plans to destroy Fema hay, ask them to withdraw.