As dozens of states brace for a historic winter storm this weekend, all eyes are on President Donald Trump’s administration and whether politics will play a role in who receives federal disaster assistance.
Politico reported Friday that many governors of states in the path of Winter Storm Fern are already scrambling to line up resources. Nearly an inch of freezing rain is expected across much of the Deep South, while heavy snow is likely to pummel the bulk of the Midwest and the East Coast. According to the Weather Channel, the storm will impact approximately 230 million Americans.
An unnamed senior official within the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) anonymously told Politico that states are “expecting the worst” after discussions with the Trump administration. “They’re preparing for no grants, no money,” the official said.
Recently, lawmakers on Capitol Hill approved a spending bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—under which FEMA operates—through 2026. One provision in the legislation stipulates that “snowstorms shall be eligible for Federal relief.”
Still, some Democrats worry the Trump administration will attempt to stifle aid to Democratic-run states. Under the second Trump administration, Cameron Hamilton, the former acting FEMA administrator, entertained the idea of denying aid for snowstorms.
Politico also reported that after catastrophic flooding in the spring of 2025, the Trump administration denied federal disaster funding to Maryland, led by Democratic Governor Wes Moore.
A spokesperson for Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) expressed concern, stating that the tendency of Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem “to turn even the weather into a partisan issue and play politics with people’s lives may make an already bad situation somehow even worse.”
House Homeland Security Committee ranking member Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) urged the administration to adhere to the standard set by the recent DHS funding bill. “Any notion that snowstorms don’t qualify as a disaster defies logic and is unnecessarily cruel,” Thompson told Politico.
Since 2016, FEMA has spent roughly $272 million helping communities recover from snowstorms, according to Politico. While this is a significant amount, it remains comparatively small given the tens of billions of dollars the agency has spent on all disaster relief during that period.
States are particularly dependent on federal funds following snowstorms. Former FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, who served during the Obama administration, told Politico that cash-strapped states which do not frequently experience wintry conditions tend to cut snow removal funding during lean times.
“We tried to set the thresholds to say, unless this is an extraordinary event, it should not be supplanting state and local responsibility to fund snow removal and treatment operations on their highways on the back of the federal taxpayers,” Fugate explained.
As Winter Storm Fern approaches, the nation watches closely to see how federal disaster assistance will be managed—and whether politics will influence which communities receive aid.
https://www.alternet.org/trump-disaster-aid-snowstorm/