“President Donald Trump announced he approved more than $846 million in disaster relief funds for Republican-leaning states in a series of posts on his social media platform, combining the announcements with praise for candidates he endorsed in those states’ upcoming elections,” ABC News reports.
President Donald Trump’s most recent disaster aid bill has made the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) an obvious tool of political patronage, with his administration clearly tying those funds to their electoral support.
That is pretty sad and un-American.
Unlike the “normal,” righteous apolitical view of emergency funding as simply a function of the U.S. federal government, this administration publicly framed its relief efforts as rewards to “great states that voted for me” and “incredible patriots,” defining which Americans belong inside Trump’s preferred United States.
An American president, or any political leader of ANY country, should not fund only those states that have supported him in an election, as such actions undermine the democratic process and harm equally entitled U.S. citizens. Using public funds to benefit an individual’s political base is harmful to our system of government, as elected officials serve all constituents and Americans, rather than just their supporters.
