FEMA Employee Fired for Urging Team to Avoid Homes With Trump Signs

A tattered American flag flaps outside a home with furniture and household items damaged by Hurricane Helene piled outside along the street awaiting pickup ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Milton in Holmes Beach on Anna Maria Island, Fla., on Oct. 8, 2024. Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo

An employee with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been fired from her position after she allegedly urged her team not to visit homes with signs backing then-presidential candidate former President Donald Trump, the director of the agency said amid mounting investigations into the matter.

In a statement posted on social media platform X, FEMA Director Deanne Criswell said that the employee, who she did not name, was “terminated” and that the agency has “referred the matter to the Office of Special Counsel.”

“This is a clear violation of FEMA’s core values & principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation,” she wrote on Saturday. “This was reprehensible. I want to be clear to all of my employees and the American people, this type of behavior and action will not be tolerated at FEMA and we will hold people accountable if they violate these standards of conduct.”

Criswell was responding to a Fox News report that said a FEMA official told employees to avoid homes with Trump signs.

The Epoch Times contacted FEMA for comment over the past weekend but did not receive a response by publication time.

Investigations Launched

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee have both said they will investigate the matter. The comments from the FEMA administrator and DeSantis did not mention the exact time frame or location of the incident.

FEMA workers have helped Florida residents recover from last month’s devastating Hurricane Milton. Days before that, Hurricane Helene hit another area in Florida, causing significant devastation in western North Carolina.

Aside from the governors, House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said he launched an investigation into the FEMA reports. In a letter to Criswell, Comer requested that she testify before the committee and answer questions about the agency’s response to recent hurricanes.

The hearing, he wrote, would “permit members to investigate recent reports that a FEMA official instructed relief workers to bypass hurricane-impacted homes displaying campaign signs for President Trump.”

“In the wake of the recent major disasters that impacted Americans of all political persuasions, it is critical that FEMA adheres to its disaster relief mission,” Comer said.

FEMA has a workforce of more than 22,000 people that can swell to more than 50,000 active members during major disasters. It has 10 regional offices and the capacity to coordinate resources from across the federal government.

Screenshots and internal messages published by The Daily Wire show that a FEMA official allegedly told relief workers who were identifying residents eligible for federal aid in Lake Placid, Florida, that they should “avoid homes advertising Trump.”

One photo shows a home with a Trump flag and a note, “Trump sign no entry per leadership.” Other notes said, “Per leadership no stop Trump flag,” “Trump sign,” and “Trump sign, no contact per leadership,” according to the screenshots.

The Epoch Times has not been able to independently verify those claims.

On social media, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) confirmed that the screenshots and reports are “true,” adding that his office “is in contact with FEMA” about the matter.

During hurricanes Milton and Helene, FEMA came under fire from Republicans, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who said that the agency had prioritized illegal immigrants, citing two announcements made by the federal agency earlier this year. Their comments came after outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said FEMA doesn’t have enough money to last through the hurricane season, which ends at the end of November.

However, Criswell, on multiple occasions, publicly denied claims that funds were being diverted to illegal immigrants while saying the agency was not running out of funds.

As of Tuesday morning, a tropical disturbance was observed in the southern Caribbean Ocean by the U.S. National Hurricane Center, which said the system has an 80 percent chance of developing into a tropical storm within the next seven days.

Reuters contributed to this report.