Trump refused to give California wildfire aid until told how many people there voted for him, ex-aide says

But Harvey said Trump changed his mind after Harvey pulled voting results to show him that heavily damaged Orange County, California, had more Trump supporters than the entire state of Iowa. The exchange — not previously reported — drew a dumbfounded response on social media Thursday from President Joe Biden, who summed up Trump’s attitude as: “You can’t only help those in need if they voted for you.” “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. The Department of Homeland Security Inspector General issued eight reports criticizing FEMA’s response to Hurricane Maria in both Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands during the Trump administration. “Vendors were at capacity in providing nutritional meals following Hurricane Harvey,” the IG wrote, “and could not produce any more to support the effort in Puerto Rico.” The Department of Housing and Urban Development Inspector General found that the White House delayed the release of $8.3 billion in HUD disaster aid for Puerto Rico that Congress approved in February 2018. “There was still just a whole lot of stall, stall, stall, don’t give them what they need yet.” “It just goes into this pattern of, ‘We’re not awarding that, these aren’t my people.’ That general sense of, ‘I am here to help my people, and these aren’t my people, so I don’t have a responsibility to help.’” Trump’s approach to Puerto Rico stands in contrast to how he responded to a separate disaster in Alabama, where he won 63 percent of the vote in 2016.