“It’s only a matter of time before Trump and Musk’s reckless assault on disaster response and preparedness kills people in the United States.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Kenny Stancil, stancil@therevolvingdoorproject.org
Today, the Revolving Door Project published a new tracker focused on how the Trump administration’s pre- and post-disaster policies are mortally endangering the public.
This resource contains two discrete tools: 1) an interactive map documenting how Trump’s FEMA has delayed or denied federal disaster aid and 2) an interactive timeline documenting the wide-ranging attacks on disaster preparedness and response by the Trump administration, including the malicious DOGE initiative launched by Elon Musk.
Both tools include highlights for those pressed for time, and spreadsheets with all of the underlying data for those who want to explore this issue in greater detail.
“It’s only a matter of time before Trump and Musk’s reckless assault on disaster response and preparedness kills people in the United States,” said Revolving Door Project senior researcher Kenny Stancil. “It nearly happened in mid-May in Kentucky, where a DOGE-damaged NWS forecast office had to scramble for staff before a tornado. Amid last week’s heatwave, low-income households across the country were missing the federal support they need to keep the air conditioning on.* And when a major hurricane arrives, Trump, Musk, OMB Director Russell Vought, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem will almost certainly have blood on their hands.”
“As hurricanes, flooding, wildfires, and heatwaves proliferate this summer,” Stancil continued, “public officials must have the guts to investigate the Trump administration’s role in exacerbating mortality and, when appropriate, they should attribute preventable death and suffering to the White House.”
Revolving Door Project executive director Jeff Hauser said: “Trump, Musk, Vought, Lutnick, and Noem are the storm before the storms. They’re preventing forecasters and emergency managers at all levels from doing what is necessary to prepare for and respond to disasters. This is a matter of life-and-death.”
“It’s fundamental to a democracy that when government officials prematurely end or ruin people’s lives, they are held accountable,” Hauser added. “This new Revolving Door Project resource aims to help people connect the dots between the Trump administration’s hostile anti-government actions and any lethal consequences that follow. There’s no shortage of damning information here that can be used to highlight Team Trump’s culpability.”
* The whole team tasked with administering the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which helps roughly six million poor, elderly, and disabled households maintain safe indoor temperatures every year, was placed on administrative leave on April 1 and eventually fired. Following pressure from advocacy groups and some House and Senate lawmakers, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in May released approximately $400 million in remaining LIHEAP funding. (Roughly 90 percent of the $4.1 billion Congress approved for fiscal year 2025 had already been allocated to states in October 2024 to help defray the costs of home heating during the winter.) According to Grist, HHS temporarily rehired one of the dismissed staffers to help determine the disbursement of the final 10 percent. Nevertheless, that move doesn’t negate concerns about program continuity. As a coalition of environmental justice groups observed in late May, the Trump administration had forced state and local agencies “to operate under uncertainty, delaying outreach and enrollment while vulnerable residents face another summer of dangerous heat without assurance of relief.”
TRACKER: Trump’s Disastrous Disaster Policy
Map: Trump Has Often Delayed or Denied Disaster Aid
Timeline: Trump’s Attacks on Disaster Preparedness and Response
The above photo, a work of the federal government, is in the public domain.