An exclusive report from The Daily Wire has revealed that a FEMA supervisor told workers to skip over the homes of Trump supporters while they were responding to Hurricane Milton in early October.
The Daily Wire reviewed internal messages that confirmed that Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) supervisor Marn’i Washington had told her employees to “avoid” the homes of Trump supporters while they were surveying storm damage in Lake Placid, Florida, to figure out who would be eligible for taxpayer-funded federal aid.
According to government employees who spoke with the outlet, this message was told to workers both verbally and in the group chat message that the outlet released. The message was a bullet-point list of “best practices,” one of which read: “avoid homes advertising Trump.”
EXCLUSIVE: Internal messages obtained by The Daily Wire show a FEMA official ordered relief workers in Florida not to help houses with Trump signs pic.twitter.com/o73ejUuYUG
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) November 8, 2024
The anonymous employees told the Daily Wire that workers bypassed at least 20 homes because they had signs or flags in support of President Donald Trump. They also shared screenshots with the outlet which showed messages written in the government system that read, “Trump sign no entry per leadership” as the explanation for a house being skipped. Similar messages on skipped addresses read, “Trump sign,” and “per leadership no stop Trump flag.”
Whistleblowers say that relief workers were told it was "best practice" to pass over houses "advertising Trump."
The workers would enter into the system that they made no contact with the residents, blaming the directive: "Trump sign, no contact per leadership" pic.twitter.com/1b0uL7pSDy
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) November 8, 2024
The employees who were members of the initial group chat were part of a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) surge capacity force team, meaning that they had volunteered to aid FEMA following Hurricane Milton’s landfall, which hit just after Hurricane Helene.
One employee told the Daily Wire: “I know they’re short-staffed, I thought we could go help and make a difference. When we got there we were told to discriminate against people. It’s almost unbelievable to think that somebody in the federal government would think that’s okay.”
One worker says it wasn't what he signed up for.
"I thought we could go help and make a difference. When we got there we were told to discriminate against people. It’s almost unbelievable to think that somebody in the federal government would think that’s okay.”
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) November 8, 2024
“I volunteered to help disaster victims, not discriminate against them,” the employee added. “It didn’t matter if people were black, white, Hispanic, for Trump, for Harris. Everyone deserves the same amount of help.”
Another federal employee told the Daily Wire that the FEMA supervisor had verbally told workers not to help houses with Trump signs back on October 22, then sent the same instructions in the group chat on October 27.
The specific county where workers were told to skip Trump-supporting houses was Highlands County, Florida, which Trump won with a staggering 70% in Tuesday’s presidential election.
The Daily Wire noted that Washington, who is the Disaster Survivor Assistance crew leader, had begun to walk back her instructions by October 30. Her FEMA supervisor, Chad Hershey, has since issued a statement to the outlet, which read: “We are aware of it and we are taking proper action in this situation currently.”
