A Red State Begged Trump For Help. He Said No — And Now They’re Screwed.

Trump-supporting Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is stuck in a pretty awkward position.

Last month, 14 tornadoes struck Arkansas over the course of two days, killing three people and leaving 32 more injured. The deadly outbreak damaged or destroyed 500 homes, cars and businesses, leaving behind more than $8.8 million of storm damage.

As is customary, Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders asked the federal government for help. After a major disaster, the usual procedure is for the federal government to issue a disaster declaration, setting the wheels in motion for the Federal Emergency Management Administration to step in with funds to help the state clean up.

But President Donald Trump said no. In a letter from April 11, the federal government said it had “determined that the damage from this event was not of such severity and magnitude as to be beyond the capabilities of the state, affected local governments, and voluntary agencies.”

Arkansas was on its own.

Since his return to power, Trump has been on a rampage, cutting federal funds, firing government employees and threatening his enemies with political retribution. The federal government, his thinking seems to be, is no longer there to provide services to Americans, but rather a weapon to use against any person or institution that dares to question his policies.

And among his targets has been FEMA — which he has signaled he’d like to dismantle altogether.

While visiting the sites of the Los Angeles wildfires earlier this year, Trump told reporters that Americans don’t need FEMA, they “need a good state government.” He added, “FEMA is a very expensive, in my opinion, mostly failed situation.”

The environment for demonizing FEMA was ripe. In September 2024, just before the presidential election, Hurricane Helene left a trail of destruction in Western North Carolina along with a deluge of misinformation.

Fueled by outright lies from the Trump campaign, right-wing activists claimed the state had been abandoned by the Biden administration. They claimed that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were diverting funds for the state and sending them to undocumented immigrants instead. FEMA paused door-to-door visits during the cleanup after several workers were threatened with violence. But that was tame compared to the egregious lie that the storm was somehow created by the government and sent to destroy North Carolina.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), known for embracing nonsensical conspiracy theories, hinted that she believed the storm was created by the government.

“Yes they can control the weather,” she posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”

Trump floated his plan for FEMA while visiting North Carolina shortly after his second inauguration. “I’d like to see the states take care of disasters,” he said. “Let the state take care of the tornadoes and the hurricanes and all of the other things that happen.” And, in liberal California, Trump went further and said he would like to see concessions from Democratic-run states before allowing FEMA aid to flow.

But still, Trump had made punishing his enemies — including blue states — and rewarding his allies a key theme of his campaign. So, when tornadoes hit Arkansas, a state that voted for Trump three times, with the last election being the highest margin for a GOP candidate since 1972, and whose governor was his former press secretary, residents perhaps didn’t think FEMA denials would apply to them.

Clearly, they were mistaken.

Sanders filed an appeal one week after the denial, detailing the destruction, deaths and injuries that occurred across the state. “[W]ithout the support of a Major Disaster Declaration, Arkansas will face significant challenges in assuming full responsibility and achieving an effective recovery from this event,” she wrote. This major Trump ally had been reduced to begging him for help.

Arkansas’ federal lawmakers are also asking the president to reconsider. “[T]hese storms caused catastrophic damage across the state, resulting in disastrous amounts of debris, widespread destruction to homes and businesses, the deaths of three Arkansans, and injuries to many more,” the state’s two U.S. senators and four U.S. House representatives said in a letter.

If this is how Trump treats his friends, how will he treat his enemies?

Typically after a disaster, a state will need to ask the president to declare a major disaster, a request which is usually fairly pro forma. If they agree, FEMA is able to disburse aid, which often comes in the form of workers to help clear debris and staffers who process claims for individuals and provide monetary aid to state and local governments.

But federal funds are Trump’s favorite weapon — he’s threatened to withhold them from universities, school districts, states and cities he doesn’t like — putting blue states on edge. And now it’s increasingly seeming like even red states won’t be spared from the president’s reckless cuts.

The idea that the federal government is the enemy is a common sentiment among the right, because they believe it tramples on their idea of freedom and personal liberties. The idea has been supercharged since Trump’s return to power. Aided by the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, which essentially calls for the decimation of the federal government, Trump’s move to dramatically reduce the size and scope of the federal government has been cheered on by Republican electeds and MAGA voters who saw the federal government as a shadowy entity that doesn’t do anything for the common people. In this view, the government is overrun with radical leftists doling out checks to undeserving liberals in the form of government assistance and fat paychecks for lazy bureaucrats.

But one of the first things Sanders did after tragedy hit her state was reach out to the federal government. Because, in reality, the government provides goods and services like public education, national parks — and disaster relief.

“It almost becomes unthinkable that states would ever be able to recover without long, costly recovery periods that would come out of state and local budgets,” Craig Fugate, the former FEMA administration under the Obama administration, told NBC News in November.

Without FEMA, states and cities would be left to fend for themselves. Charitable groups would still be able to respond after a storm or wildfire, but they don’t have the capacity of the federal government. As a result, places with more wealth and resources would likely be able to recover after disasters faster than smaller, poorer or more rural places.

Arkansas is one of the poorest states in the country, with about 15% of the population living in poverty, according to U.S. Census data. Sanders also noted in her appeal letter to the Trump administration that the state was still recovering from storms that struck in 2024 and resources were already stretched thin.

Arkansas’ predicament could signal a coming shift. According to a CNN report published Friday, acting FEMA Administrator Cameron Hamilton wants to upend how the agency handles disasters, making it harder for states to qualify for help by drastically increasing the amount of damage that qualifies, denying all major disaster declarations that are related to snowstorms, reducing the amount the federal government will pay and more. The proposal also comes as hurricane season approaches, threatening to leave communities in dire need of help out to dry.

Already, Washington state received a denial letter earlier this month after a windstorm left $34 million in damage in the state.

In an era of billion-dollar disasters fueled by climate change, FEMA has already been busier than ever while being stretched thin due to staffing challenges. In 2022, the Government Accountability Office report said the agency was short-staffed and dealing with retention problems. Staffing issues have led to slowed recovery efforts in communities experiencing disasters.

But that hasn’t stopped the Trump administration from cutting workers and threatening to eliminate the agency altogether. As part of the Elon Musk-led DOGE cuts, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the department, announced that 200 FEMA staffers had been fired in February.

“FEMA staff are some of the most critical and needed in the federal government,” Rob Moore, a policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a February report. “Slashing these employees indiscriminately will put more Americans in harm’s way, and means we will have slower and less-coordinated recovery efforts.”