‘Defund FEMA’ Calls Grow After Worker Told Team to Avoid Trump Supporters

Supporters of Donald Trump are calling for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to be defunded after an employee directed workers helping hurricane survivors to avoid homes with yard signs supporting the president-elect.
FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell confirmed that an employee who advised “her survivor assistance team to not go to homes with yard signs supporting President-elect Trump” had been fired.
FEMA workers have been in Florida helping residents recover from Hurricane Milton, which devastated many communities just two weeks after Hurricane Helene hit the state before traveling north.
“This is a clear violation of FEMA’s core values and principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation. This was reprehensible,” Criswell said in a statement posted on social media.
“We take our mission to help everyone before, during and after disasters seriously. This employee has been terminated and we have referred the matter to the Office of Special Counsel.”
Republican members of Congress responded to the worker’s firing by demanding an immediate investigation. “This is unconscionable discrimination, and Congress MUST INVESTIGATE!” Florida Representative Matt Gaetz wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Now, some Trump allies and supporters are calling for FEMA to lose its funding.
“This is @fema and they need their a** busted,” Republican Representative Tim Burchett wrote on X, alongside a link to The Daily Wire article that first reported the incident.
“FEMA needs to be defunded,” Gunther Eagleman, a conservative commentator, wrote.
Newsweek has contacted FEMA and a Trump spokesperson for comment via email.
Although Criswell did not identify the employee or say where the incident happened, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said it had happened in his state.
He said he has directed the Florida Division of Emergency Management to launch an investigation into the “federal government’s targeted discrimination” of Floridians who support Trump.
Trump and other Republicans had criticized the agency’s response to the recent hurricanes during his campaign for the White House, and falsely claimed that its disaster funding had been diverted to help migrants.
FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund was replenished as part of a stopgap spending bill passed by Congress in September. Officials have said the fund has enough money to respond to Helene and Milton, but that FEMA will eventually need supplemental funding from Congress.
House Speaker Mike Johnson resisted calls to reconvene Congress ahead of the election to approve additional funding. He said last month that once FEMA assesses and calculates the cost of the recovery from Helene and Milton, lawmakers “will meet and in bipartisan fashion, we will address those needs.”