Deciding to condition FEMA aid on support for Israel has not panned out well for the Trump administration.
Grant orders issued by the agency directed states and cities to certify that they would not avoid or end “commercial relations specifically with Israeli companies” while receiving the federal disaster relief funds, Reuters reported Monday, citing official notices it had obtained. But in the wake of the news, fierce bipartisan backlash effectively forced the White House to nix the operation.
MAGA influencers including Candace Owens, Nick Fuentes, and Matt Walsh came out in staunch opposition to the effort, accusing Donald Trump of failing to put “America first.”
“Remember to pledge allegiance to Israel before your house is destroyed by a fire or hurricane, it could save your life,” wrote Fuentes on X.
Owens, meanwhile, claimed that Trump had “fully betrayed America” for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “If you cannot see that now you are completely blind,” the talk show host wrote. “Best 100 million Miriam Adelson ever spent.”
Walsh simply stated, “There is just no way to reasonably claim that this qualifies as ‘America First’.”
Hours after initial reports broke about the conditioned aid, the Department of Homeland Security issued a statement insisting that “there is NO FEMA requirement tied to Israel in any current NOFO.”
But that doesn’t mean that future funding is protected from similar efforts. The notice underscored DHS’s ability to deny funds to any entity it deemed affiliated with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which aims to curb Israel’s violence in Gaza by peeling financial support away from the nation and its businesses.
“No states have lost funding, and no new conditions have been imposed,” the notice reads. “FEMA grants remain governed by existing law and policy and not political litmus tests. DHS will enforce all anti-discrimination laws and policies, including as it relates to the BDS movement, which is expressly grounded in antisemitism. Those who engage in racial discrimination should not receive a single dollar of federal funding.”
But a review of the order shows that it did indeed originally contain language conditioning aid on support for Israel. Following the backlash, the language was quietly edited to remove the reference to anti-Israel boycotts.
And as journalist Saagar Enjeti noted on X, “the DHS … makes it clear the admin reserves the right to deny these funds” based on the Anti-Boycott Act.”
“They still might do it. They’re just not saying it out loud right now,” he added.
The off-color FEMA order was just the latest in a long line of warnings from the Trump administration regarding its alliance with Israel and Netanyahu. The Department of Homeland Security announced in April that boycotting Israel was forbidden for any state or city intending to receive federal funding, and the White House has rescinded billions of dollars from universities around the country for failing to meet Trump’s metric of support for America’s genocidal Middle Eastern ally.
The post Trump Pulls Sneaky 180 After MAGA Rips Him on Disaster Aid Condition appeared first on New Republic.
