Biden Administration’s DHS Report Reveals Bias Against Trump Voters During Hurricane Response

A report from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has indicated that federal employees failed to assist some Trump supporters during the response to Hurricane Milton. Notably, the DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that disaster survivor assistance teams bypassed at least 11 homes displaying pro-Trump signs.

The investigation faced obstacles due to former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s delay in approving a contract necessary for maintaining important records. This hindered a wider inquiry into claims of anti-Trump bias in various disaster responses.

The report has highlighted incidents of politicized disaster relief efforts, with at least one Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) team violating the Hatch Act. According to the OIG, these failures can be attributed to a lack of sufficient training and education for personnel involved in disaster responses.

“FEMA DSA crews did not receive ethics and Hatch Act training before deploying to disasters,” the OIG outlined, noting that procedures didn’t require teams to document their reasons for skipping homes and crew leaders were not mandated to conduct quality control reviews.

Marn’i Washington, a DSA team leader, faces allegations of two Hatch Act violations from 2025 for advising her team to steer clear of Trump supporters during the disaster response. The Office of Special Counsel claimed that Washington misused her official position to sway an election. In her defense, she suggested that her actions were motivated by safety concerns, framing Trump supporters as potentially hostile.

Washington has since denied wrongdoing, asserting that her instructions were misunderstood. “Firstly, I’m being framed,” she remarked. “Safety precautions are not politically driven.”

The OIG report documented multiple instances of DSA crews explicitly noting their avoidance of homes because of political signage, indicating a troubling pattern. Unfortunately, it remained unclear how many other crews may have followed Washington’s lead due to a lack of accessible evidence after a vital documentation system was lost when funding was not secured.

This absence of records means investigators could not assess whether skipping homes based on political affiliation was a broader issue during the specified time frame. The report read, “We could not determine if crews skipped locations for unallowable reasons during other disasters because the support contract for FEMA’s Field Assessment and Collection Tools ended.”

The OIG has recommended several measures to ensure a non-political approach in disaster responses moving forward, including implementing training on the Hatch Act and establishing mandatory documentation processes for team interactions with survivors. FEMA has agreed with these suggestions.

The situation has arguably eroded public trust in FEMA’s impartiality and capacity to provide equal support during disasters. While the report raises significant concerns, the true extent of how many Trump-supporting individuals were neglected remains uncertain.

FEMA temporarily halted door-to-door disaster response in 2025 to evaluate its operations. As for further comments on the report, both FEMA, the DHS, and the Office of Special Counsel have not provided any responses thus far, and attempts to reach Washington and Noem have been unsuccessful.