During the regularly scheduled ass-kissing session cabinet meeting, Secretary ICE Cosplay Barbie was blowing smoke up Sleepy Don’s butt, jokingly (By Dog, I hope it was jokingly!) crediting him for keeping hurricanes away. Odd, I thought it was the Democrats that controlled the weather.
But the thing that burnt my toast was when Noem made the claim that FEMA was deploying money and resources 150% faster than ever before. Unless Noem was including denial form letters as a resource, she was lying like a rug. So far this year, FEMA has turned down 18 requests for relief:
While FEMA has not published a 2025 year-to-date denial rate, its most recent open-data list shows 18 denials to date. ENR reviewed the agency’s “Declaration Denials” dataset and could not access the current 2025 approval data; FEMA had not made it publicly available.
However, an analysis of year-to-date denials found 10 in states led by Democratic governors and eight in Republican-led states—a modest but noticeable tilt toward denials in Democratic-governed states.
FEMA’s evolving eligibility criteria, rather than overt political preference, could explain the decisions, though the clustered timing has drawn public scrutiny.
The report states that Sleepy Don was concerned that some of the FEMA funding might be helping immigrants. He wants the money to go to only the white people.
