Trump Resisted Sending Aid After California Wildfires, Aides Say

He changed his mind after being shown data that his supporters in the state had been affected, the former officials said. One called his approach “red states vs. blue states.”

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A former Trump administration official said that securing federal financial support for California was a consistent challenge when he was in office.

As California battled the deadliest wildfire in its history in 2018, Donald J. Trump, then the president, initially opposed unlocking federal funding for the state, according to two former Trump administration officials.

But Mr. Trump shifted his position after his advisers found data showing that large numbers of his supporters were being affected by the infernos, said the officials, who have both endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in this year’s presidential election.

Olivia Troye, who was Vice President Mike Pence’s homeland security adviser, said that Mr. Trump had initially instructed Brock Long, then the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, not to send “any money” to California, a state that Mr. Trump lost decisively in the 2016 election.

Mark Harvey, the senior director for resilience policy on the National Security Council in the Trump administration, also recalled Mr. Trump delivering that message in a meeting with Mr. Long. (Mr. Long did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did John R. Bolton, who was the national security adviser at the time.)

Ms. Troye said the episode, which was previously reported by E&E News, was not the only time Mr. Trump resisted providing disaster aid to Democratic-leaning regions. She mentioned his response to sending aid to Puerto Rico after it was hit by hurricanes.

“We saw numerous instances — this was just one — where it was politicized,” Ms. Troye said in an interview regarding the California episode, adding, “It was red states vs. blue states.”

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