The Federal Emergency Management Agency is under fire after a supervisor directed staff to avoid helping Florida residents with signs supporting Donald Trump, but that incident illustrates a larger culture of woke priorities undermining FEMA’s central mission, according to one current employee and one former employee who spoke with The Daily Signal on condition of anonymity.

The FEMA veterans said that, under the Biden-Harris administration, the agency prioritizes racial minorities, LGBTQ individuals, and climate initiatives, undermining its mission of helping Americans face disasters and leading Americans to distrust the federal government. FEMA pushes diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, at the risk of saving fewer lives, they said.

“FEMA’s rotten to a core,” said an employee who worked there for about five years and left earlier this year. “It’s overstaffed, it’s bureaucratic, [and] they don’t really help anybody.”

“FEMA needs to help people. It doesn’t help people right now,” he said. “It’s so biased and racist [against those perceived as white].”

(Note: This article refers to both the former staffer and the current staffer using male pronouns, but this editorial decision should not be taken as revealing the sex of either person.)

The current FEMA employee, who has over a decade of service in federal agencies, said the woke bias undermines FEMA’s disaster response goals.

“I think such an approach more broadly undermines trust in government,” the employee told The Daily Signal. “While FEMA aims to help people through noble missions, such emphasis on DEI compartmentalizes people, further dividing the country and sowing distrust.”

“The current FEMA administrator made a conscious decision to sacrifice a ready and prepared nation for a divisive DEI agenda and unserious climate goals,” the staffer added, referring to Deanne Criswell, who was appointed by President Joe Biden.

FEMA did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment by publication time.

A FEMA supervisor, Marn’i Washington, told workers in a message to “avoid homes advertising Trump” as they canvassed Lake Placid, Florida, to identify residents who could qualify for federal aid after Hurricane Milton, The Daily Wire’s Leif Le Mahieu reported last week. Employees of FEMA told The Daily Wire that Washington relayed this message both verbally and via a group chat.

Her directive reportedly prevented FEMA from offering post-hurricane aid to at least 20 homes displaying Trump signs or flags between late October and November.

Criswell confirmed the story and announced on X that Washington had been fired.

“More than 22,000 FEMA employees every day adhere to FEMA’s core values and are dedicated to helping people before, during and after disasters, often sacrificing time with their own families to help disaster survivors,” Criswell wrote. “Recently, a FEMA........

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