Trump made promises to Helene victims. His administration is breaking them | Opinion
One of the very first promises that President Donald Trump made upon taking office was to help those who were still recovering from Hurricane Helene. Western North Carolina had “been abandoned by the Democrats,” he said. His administration would be different, however. Or so he claimed.
“Biden did a bad job. … This is totally unacceptable and I’ll be taking strong action to get North Carolina the support that you need to quickly recover and rebuild,” Trump said when visiting the region in January.
Less than three months later, the Trump administration seems to be the one abandoning North Carolina, denying the state’s request to extend federal aid. The state had requested an extension of the 100% cost match for some recovery measures including debris removal and emergency protective services. FEMA denied that request last week, deeming it “not warranted.”
The request was supported by most of North Carolina’s congressional delegation in a letter last month, which expressed concern that “a reduction in the federal cost share at this time will risk undercutting important work that is currently underway.” Despite signing that letter, U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards, who represents western North Carolina, seemingly defended the Trump administration’s denial. Edwards told the Asheville Citizen-Times that such a request was “unprecedented” and he is instead “focusing on other ways I can make a tangible difference in helping the citizens of Western North Carolina recover more quickly.”
Perhaps FEMA assistance is no longer Trump’s priority, given that he’s floated the idea of cutting the agency entirely. But doing so would almost certainly jeopardize ongoing recovery efforts and limit the ability to respond to future disasters. New reporting from NPR indicates that job cuts at the federal level are already impacting Helene relief efforts. Staffing reductions at the Centers for Disease Control forced the agency to suspend a project surveying Buncombe County residents about the enduring challenges they face in Helene’s aftermath, NPR reported Tuesday. That survey would have been shared with local officials to help them better address the needs of their communities.
What Trump and his administration don’t seem to understand is that government isn’t always a bad thing. Their quest to reduce its size and scope might save money, but what if that money is saving people’s lives? Funding spent helping people in their times of greatest need — and paying the employees who make it possible — isn’t wasteful. It’s exactly what government should be for. There’s nothing wrong, of course, with making sure those services are administered efficiently. But when “efficiency” turns into cutting services entirely, it’s not such a noble goal anymore.
But Trump doesn’t seem to believe the federal government should play much of a role in responding to disasters at all. In proposing the abolition of FEMA, he suggested relief efforts should be handled by the states, saying, “I’d like to see the states take care of disasters. Let the state take care of the tornadoes and the hurricanes and all of the other things that happen.”
State and local officials have played a meaningful role in helping western North Carolina recover from Helene. The General Assembly approved another half a billion dollars in aid just last month. But the $60 billion in damage that Helene caused was unprecedented. No state or local government can shoulder that burden on its own. Even with the help of federal funding, they simply don’t have the resources and infrastructure to facilitate such a response themselves.
That’s why the Trump administration’s denial to extend key federal assistance is so disappointing. It makes the president’s previous promises to Helene victims sound like lip service. It makes his criticisms of the Biden administration’s perceived failures sound hypocritical. The people of western North Carolina deserve better.
This story was originally published April 16, 2025 at 9:18 AM with the headline "Trump made promises to Helene victims. His administration is breaking them | Opinion."
