Trump Under Fire for Allegedly Holding Back FEMA Funds from Blue States

A federal judge recently determined that the Trump administration violated a court order by withholding Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds from at least 19 states. This decision follows allegations of a covert strategy to penalize states with sanctuary laws for immigrants.

U.S. District Judge John McConnell initially issued a preliminary injunction in March, favoring 23 states that challenged the government’s plan to pause federal funding. The judge emphasized that such actions threaten the fundamental constitutional roles of the government. He mandated the administration to cease any funding pauses immediately.

In his latest ruling, Judge McConnell found evidence that these states, which all have Democratic attorneys general, were indeed denied congressionally approved FEMA funding. Testimonies from states like Oregon revealed over $120 million in disaster relief aid was frozen, while Hawaii reported a lack of response regarding a $6 million aid request for wildfire recovery.

The Trump administration had claimed that FEMA’s new manual review process for allocated funding complied with the court’s injunction. However, the judge dismissed this argument, stating that the states had experienced a “substantial disbursement of funds” shortfall since early February, effectively rendering the pause indefinite.

McConnell characterized the funding withholding as a covert mechanism linked to President Trump’s executive order from January 2025, aimed at denying federal aid to sanctuary states. The ruling stated that evidence suggested FEMA’s actions were influenced by this directive.

FEMA was ordered to immediately halt its manual review process and adhere to the original court order. Although the states haven’t sought to hold the Trump administration in contempt yet, McConnell referenced the same factors when considering enforcement of his earlier injunction.

The origins of this legal dispute can be traced to a January memo that directed federal agencies to pause all activities related to federal funding disbursement. This directive targeted various programs and sparked widespread concern among organizations dependent on federal assistance.

While the Trump administration later retracted certain aspects of the memo, they maintained that significant reductions in federal grant funding would proceed as part of a broader initiative to lessen federal expenditures and penalize state leaders who oppose the administration’s policies.