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During a Republican campaign rally speech last week in Gastonia, President Donald Trump claimed that Federal Emergency Management Agency workers skipped Western North Carolina homes with pro-Trump signs during Helene recovery at then-Gov. Roy Cooper’s behest.
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“Remember the houses? If they had a Trump sign — which was almost all of them — that they wouldn’t touch them. Remember that? That was Cooper,” Trump said. “They were told, ‘If it has a Trump sign, you know, vote for Trump and all that stuff … don’t touch them.’ And they didn’t.”
In 2024, Trump falsely claimed Cooper had blocked people and money from going to North Carolina after Helene. This recent claim is false, too. An incident involving aid workers and Trump signs did happen, but in Florida after Hurricane Milton.
In 2024, FEMA said it fired a Disaster Survivor Assistance program crew leader who ordered her team to avoid homes with pro-Trump signs in Lake Placid, Florida, after Hurricane Milton. The leader, Marn’i Washington, said that she was following the agency’s policy by instructing workers to avoid homes deemed “hostile” or “dangerous” to workers based on previous encounters.
The agency condemned Washington’s actions and fired her. FEMA later fired three more employees after the House Oversight Committee launched a political discrimination investigation into the agency.
Washington made an unverified claim that despite the agency’s assertion that this was an isolated incident, similar protocols were followed in North Carolina. House Republicans also alleged without proof that this approach spanned several states.
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During a congressional hearing in 2024, FEMA’s then-administrator, Deanne Criswell, told lawmakers there was no evidence to support that FEMA workers skipped homes in North Carolina because of political signs.
A state’s governor can submit a request asking the president to declare a disaster and send federal disaster assistance. FEMA coordinates with state and local disaster recovery officials. But FEMA employees receive direction from the agency, not the governor of the state they are deployed to.
After the Milton incident, North Carolina lawmakers passed a bill to outlaw any efforts to preferentially distribute aid based on political alignment.
In 2025, state Rep. Kelly Hastings, a Republican representing Cleveland and Gaston counties, proposed a bill that prohibits discrimination on the basis of political affiliation in state disaster recovery efforts. Under the measure, violators could be charged with a Class I felony. Both state legislative chambers passed the measure with nearly unanimous support.
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Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, signed the bill into law in June 2025.
This story was originally published September 24, 2026 at 3:44 PM.