Biden-era federal employees purposely ignored some Trump voters amid Hurricane Milton disaster response, according to a new Department of Homeland Security report.
The DHS’ Office of Inspector General found that at least 11 homes were passed over by disaster survivor assistance teams because they displayed pro-Trump signs. The OIG was stymied in a broader investigation of alleged anti-Trump supporter bias in other disaster responses because former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem failed to approve a contract that covered the maintenance of relevant records in a timely manner.
‘Did not visit due to Trump flag.’
Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel violated the Hatch Act when at least one Disaster Survivor Assistance team politicized disaster response, according to the OIG. The report attributes these failures to insufficient training and education.
“FEMA DSA crews did not receive ethics and Hatch Act training before deploying to disasters, DSA policies and procedures did not require crews to explain why they skipped homes, and DSA crew leaders were not required to conduct quality control reviews of survivor interactions,” the OIG report stated.
The report noted that Marn’i Washington, a DSA team leader, was charged with two Hatch Act violations in 2025 for instructing her team to avoid Trump supporters amid Hurricane Milton response. Washington engaged in political activity while on duty and used official authority to interfere with an election, according to the Office of Special Counsel.
Washington accused Trump supporters of hostility, claiming her instructions originated from legitimate safety concerns.
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CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images
“Firstly, I’m being framed. There’s no violation of the Hatch Act. I was simply following orders,” Washington told NewsNation in 2024. “Safety precautions are not politically driven.”
“It just so happened that, unfortunately, most of the hostile encounters, those running trends, did have those [Trump] campaign signs,” Washington said.
No public decision has been disclosed in OSC’s case against Washington.
“The first instance of a note indicating a DSA crew skipped a home due to political signage occurred on October 19, 2024. A subsequent note on October 22 stated, ‘did not visit due to Trump flag.’ Nine additional notes concerning political signage followed,’” the OIG report noted regarding Washington’s crew.
Unfortunately, the OIG was unable to determine just how many crews followed Washington’s anti-Trump lead. The Field Assessment and Collection Tools used to document government interactions with civilian survivors became unavailable to investigators after Noem ignored requests to provide funding.
“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 in September 2025 when then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary Noem did not act on FEMA’s request to fund it before expiration,” the report reads. “We requested access to the data in March 2025, but FEMA delays prevented us from obtaining the data prior to the contractor abruptly shutting down the system.”
“FEMA exported and retained all survivor assistance data, but only in a non-readable format that cannot be searched or analyzed unless FEMA procures a new system to restore access,” a source familiar with the data told Blaze News. “DSA crews conducted their work using electronic tablets connected to this system and did not use paper notes, so there are no hard-copy records to review.”
If the contract was renewed and the system remained active, the DHS investigators planned to review more natural disaster responses to see whether other DSA crews skipped homes that displayed Trump signs.
The OIG provided FEMA with several recommendations to prevent politicized disaster response in the future, including Hatch Act training and a mandatory survivor interaction documentation process for response teams. FEMA concurred with the OIG’s assessment, according to the report.
“This situation eroded public trust in FEMA’s ability to treat everyone impartially, offer unbiased and consistent assistance, and ensure equal access to resources and tools,” the report reads.
We may never know just how many Trump-supporting Americans were abandoned by the government officials responsible for helping them.
“The loss of access prevented us from assessing whether political bias in canvassing was a systemic issue during the scope period of this audit,” according to the OIG.
FEMA temporarily suspended door-to-door disaster response in 2025 while it reviewed its operations.
FEMA, the DHS, and the OSC did not respond to requests for comment. Washington could not be reached for comment. Noem could not be reached through the State Department or her lawyer of record.
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Department of homeland security, Fema, Hurricane milton, Political bias, Trump voters, Politics
