Ex-Pence Aide Recalls How Trump ‘Failed’ Americans During Disaster Relief Efforts

A former official in Donald Trump’s presidential administration has spoken out against the Republican’s reaction to Hurricane Helene and recalled how he similarly “politicized disaster relief” while in the Oval Office.

“As a Homeland Security Advisor in the Trump White House, I witnessed firsthand how Donald Trump politicized disaster relief, leaving devastated Americans waiting for help,” Olivia Troye wrote Monday on X, formerly Twitter.

“Leaders across the country & government were calling my office, desperate for action as Trump failed them in moments of crisis,” she continued. “Today, he’s once again failing Americans by distorting the facts & spreading lies.”

Troye — who served as an adviser to Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence — also praised the Joe Biden–Kamala Harris administration for “stepping up in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene with decisive leadership & a swift, effective response.”

Trump, the GOP’s 2024 presidential nominee, has lied repeatedly about the federal response to Helene, which devastated parts of Georgia, the Carolinas, Florida, Virginia and Tennessee after making landfall as a Category 4 storm Thursday. More than 130 people are dead.

Trump claimed that the Biden administration and the governor of North Carolina, Democrat Roy Cooper, are “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.” He further claimed that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) hasn’t been able to reach Biden to discuss relief. Both Biden and Kemp say that’s not true.

The former president also baselessly accused Harris, his Democratic rival for the White House, of staging a photo of a disaster briefing with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Trump oversaw multiple disasters as president. After Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in 2017, he infamously tossed paper towels into a crowd of survivors. His administration also withheld billions of dollars in congressionally approved aid from the U.S. territory.

Amid Hurricane Dorian in 2019, Trump became so fixated on a mistake he made about the storm’s path that he showed a weather map doctored with a marker to make it seem as though he had not been wrong, creating an unnecessary distraction as authorities were trying to warn people about a dangerous hurricane.