FEMA workers violated law by skipping homes with Trump signs after hurricane, watchdog says
WASHINGTON, DC: FEMA staff broke the law when they passed by 11 hurricane-damaged homes in Florida that had signs supporting Donald Trump during his 2024 campaign.
A federal watchdog’s report, released Tuesday, Aug 25, makes this clear. The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General found that a FEMA Disaster Survivor Assistance crew, while responding to Hurricane Milton, deliberately avoided those homes because of political signs. That goes against FEMA’s own policies and the Hatch Act, which bars government workers from taking political actions while on the job.
Supervisor's comments and prior discipline
The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General faulted a FEMA Disaster Survivor Assistance (DSA) crew for Hurricane Milton after they passed by the houses “due to the presence of political signage supporting then-Presidential candidate Donald Trump, violating FEMA policy and the Hatch Act.”
🇺🇸FEMA workers broke the Hatch Act when they skipped 11 Hurricane Milton homes in Florida that had Trump signs, a DHS inspector general report says.
— NewsForce (@Newsforce) August 25, 2026
The watchdog blamed weak training and no requirement that crews explain why they passed a house; a later-fired supervisor said… pic.twitter.com/1k4yCgop8w
“These issues occurred due to weaknesses in FEMA’s training, documentation, and oversight,” the watchdog determined. “FEMA DSA crews did not receive ethics and Hatch Act training before deploying to disasters, DSA policies and procedures did not require crews to explain why they skipped homes, and DSA crew leaders were not required to conduct quality control reviews of survivor interactions.”
FEMA supervisor Marn’i Washington didn’t deny instructing her crew members not to offer disaster-relief services to Hurricane Milton victims in Florida supporting the Republican president’s 2024 campaign, but insisted the suggestion wasn’t isolated to her group.
The staffers canvassed Lake Placid, Fla, between late October and early November, denying residents the opportunity to sign up for federal disaster relief assistance in the wake of the Category 3 hurricane’s landfall.
The DHS Inspector General confirmed Tuesday that a FEMA crew broke federal law skipping 11 homes with Trump signs after Hurricane Milton hit Florida in 2024.
— IredcapI (@IredcapI) August 25, 2026
The crew leader, Marn'i Washington, told her team to "avoid homes advertising Trump." A log note from October 22 read… pic.twitter.com/wOjq5WEYrn
The former FEMA boss had already been hit with a Hatch Act complaint filed with the US Office of Special Counsel last year, which may have forced her to accept civil penalties or debarment from any future federal employment.
Additional oversight failures identified
The 22-page report also criticized former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for refusing to approve funding for a data contractor.
That decision left investigators without the resources they needed to find out if other FEMA crews skipped homes for improper reasons during any other storms that season.
Investigators tried to access the necessary data back in March 2025. They didn’t get it in time, though, because the contract supporting FEMA’s data tools expired in September 2025 without any new funding. When that happened, officials shut the system down.
The report says FEMA crews went door-to-door at 744,288 homes after Hurricanes Helene and Milton, but they didn’t reach anyone at over 555,000 of those addresses.
That’s a huge number. These findings put FEMA’s disaster response under the microscope again and push people to ask how well the agency really manages its crews during big relief efforts.
