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Trump sought to withhold California wildfire aid because state didn't vote for him, former DHS official says

Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group via AP

Trump sought to withhold California wildfire aid because state didn't vote for him, former DHS official says

WASHINGTON — The former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security says in a political ad released Monday that President Donald Trump tried to withhold disaster relief money for California’s wildfires because voters in the state opposed him politically.

“He told us to stop giving money to people whose houses had burned down from a wildfire because he was so rageful that people in the state of California didn’t support him and that politically it wasn’t a base for him,” Miles Taylor, who left the Trump administration in 2019, says in the ad.

“A lot of the time, the things he wanted to do not only were impossible but, in many cases, illegal,” Mr. Taylor said, recalling how Mr. Trump “didn’t want” to hear aides inform him that his policies wouldn’t stand up to legal challenges.

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“These were his words: He knew that he had ‘magical authorities,’ ” Mr. Taylor said, recalling a phrase he said Mr. Trump used to brush off questions from aides.

In this Nov. 17, 2018, file photo, President Donald Trump, center, visits a neighborhood impacted by the wildfires in Paradise, Calif.
Amy B Wang and Katie Mettler
Trump threatens to cut off FEMA aid to California for wildfires

The Department of Homeland Security oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Mr. Taylor doesn’t say which wildfires he is referring to, but he served during the Camp Fire of 2018; Mr. Trump toured the devastation in Paradise that year.

No evidence has surfaced to show that federal aid was withheld, despite public threats from Mr. Trump at the time, who said he would withhold money because he disapproved of the state’s forest management practices.

Mr. Taylor took a job at Google after leaving the Trump administration and is on leave, according to his Twitter profile.

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The two-minute ad, promoted by a group called Republican Voters Against Trump, follows sharp criticism from several former top White House aides and others, including former national security adviser John Bolton, who have questioned Mr. Trump’s fitness to serve a second term.

The ad was released on the first day of the Democratic National Convention, which will nominate former Vice President Joe Biden to run against the incumbent.

Mr. Taylor called his 2½ years in the Trump administration “terrifying” and says in the video that while he disagrees with Mr. Biden on many issues, he is “confident Joe Biden will protect the country. I’m confident he won’t make the same mistakes as this president.”

The White House quickly fired back.

President Donald Trump talks with, from left, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, California Gov. Jerry Brown, Paradise Mayor Jody Jones and FEMA Administrator Brock Long during a visit to a neighborhood destroyed by the Camp Fire on Nov. 17, 2018, in Paradise, Calif.
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Many disagree that, as Trump says, raking forests can prevent California’s wildfires

“This individual is another creature of the D.C. Swamp who never understood the importance of the president’s agenda or why the American people elected him and clearly just wants to cash-in,” said Judd Deere, a White House spokesman.

A senior administration official questioned why Mr. Taylor served so long if he had such qualms about Trump. The official also pointed to Mr. Trump’s public threats to withhold money and the fact that the money was not ultimately withheld.

Gov. Gavin Newsom declined to comment.

The allegation that Mr. Trump tried to stop California from getting FEMA assistance serves as the most emotional attack on Mr. Trump’s leadership in the testimonial. But there are others.

“We would go in to try to talk to him about a pressing national security issue — a cyberattack, terrorism threat — he wasn’t interested in those things. To him, they weren’t priorities,” Mr. Taylor says of Mr. Trump.

Mr. Taylor recalled how Mr. Trump “wanted to go further” with his family separation policy to send a stronger message of deterrence to would-be asylum seekers fleeing Central American countries for the U.S.

“I came away completely convinced, based on firsthand experience, that the president was ill-equipped and wouldn’t become equipped to do his job effectively and, what’s worse, was actively doing damage to our security,” Mr. Taylor said, explaining his decision to support Mr. Biden despite continuing to identify as a Republican.

Mr. Taylor worked under acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke, who briefly held the job in 2017 after former Gen. John Kelly left the post for the White House and before the Senate confirmed Kirstjen Nielsen, the last non-acting head of the third-largest federal department.

Mr. Taylor was deputy and chief of staff to Ms. Nielsen, who oversaw the implementation of the administration’s family separation policy for migrants on the border.

Los Angeles Times writers John Myers in Sacramento, Calif., and Molly O’Toole in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

First Published: August 17, 2020, 10:07 p.m.

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Spot fires caused by a lightning strike burn on a hillside along Marsh Creek Road in Brentwood, Calif., on Monday.  (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group via AP)
Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group via AP
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