President Donald Trump has denied federal disaster aid to Rio Blanco County, Colorado, where the Lee and Elk fires devastated over 150,000 acres this summer, destroying homes and critical infrastructure. The county, which gave Trump 83% of its vote in the 2024 election, will apparently need to pull itself up by its bootstraps without federal assistance.
The denial affects Rio Blanco County's recovery from what became the fifth-largest wildfire in Colorado history, which caused approximately $27 million in verified damages. FEMA confirmed the losses exceeded the threshold typically required for federal disaster declarations, yet the Trump administration determined the assistance was "not warranted," offering no further explanation.
Governor Jared Polis, a Democrat, accused the president of playing political games, though it remains unclear how denying aid to one's own voters constitutes effective gamesmanship. Republican Congressman Jeff Hurd, who represents the affected district, noted with apparent bewilderment that "Western Colorado has long supported the President," seemingly under the mistaken impression that electoral loyalty might translate into disaster relief.
The White House defended the decision by noting it had deployed two firefighting aircraft during the blazes, suggesting that watching people's homes burn from above while providing aerial suppression was sufficient federal involvement. Spokesperson Abigail Jackson emphasized there was "no politicization" in the president's disaster relief decisions, a claim that would carry more weight if Trump hadn't recently denied aid to multiple states that voted for Kamala Harris while approving declarations for states that supported him.
Rio Blanco County residents, who apparently believed their overwhelming support for Trump might entitle them to the same disaster assistance offered to less loyal Americans, will now appeal the decision. The county has approximately 6,500 residents, meaning roughly 5,400 Trump voters will learn the valuable lesson that political allegiance is a one-way street that doesn't run through burned-out communities needing federal aid.
Colorado has invested over $57 million responding to disasters since July 2024 and lacks capacity to continue without federal support, but fiscal responsibility demands that states should handle their own disasters—at least when those states have Democratic governors who dare to enforce election security laws and incarcerate former county clerks for election interference.
