Trump's FEMA rejects Illinois disaster aid request for August storms

Jeremy Gorner, Chicago Tribune on Oct 8, 2026

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Republican President Donald Trump’s administration has denied Illinois’ request for a major disaster declaration that would have unlocked federal aid for eight counties, including Cook and Will, hit by severe storms this August. The state’s top Democrats accused the president of politicizing disaster relief.

In a letter Wednesday, Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Cameron Hamilton wrote that federal assistance was “not warranted,” Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker’s office said in a statement released on Thursday. The Pritzker administration said it would appeal FEMA’s decision.

The denial comes in a record-breaking year for severe weather in Illinois, which leads the nation with about 212 tornadoes confirmed by the National Weather Service so far this year, according to Pritzker’s office. It also comes as Trump’s administration denied providing federal assistance to Illinois last year for storms, including when a deluge dumped five to six inches of rain in some areas in July 2025, flooding basements and damaging thousands of homes; the state of Illinois put the average household damage at $16,784.

“Our communities are still picking up the pieces from the destruction caused by severe weather this summer. Donald Trump should never play politics with their homes, businesses and infrastructure,” Pritzker said in a news release. “When a massive storm system crosses state lines, the resulting damage should be evaluated fairly, consistently and based on the same objective standards and criteria, regardless of which state it impacts.”

FEMA made disaster assistance available to neighboring Indiana — a solidly Republican state that also coped with power outages that lasted up to two weeks — to help areas recover from many of the same severe storms, tornadoes, flooding and strong winds in August.

“Much like a toddler throwing a tantrum, Donald Trump continues to punish Americans who live in states that did not support him in the last election. This behavior is beneath the dignity of the office he holds,” U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, Illinois’ senior senator and a Democrat, said in a statement.

A FEMA spokesperson could not be reached Thursday. The agency has previously disputed suggestions that politics plays a role in its decisions.

But reports throughout 2026 have shown that Trump’s rejections of disaster declarations cast a shadow not just over Illinois but the entire federal disaster-response system, which critics say the president has bent to serve political ends.

An analysis by Politico’s E&E News in March found Trump approved just 23% of disaster declaration requests from solidly Democratic states, defined as those with a Democratic governor and two Democratic U.S. senators, compared with 89% from solidly Republican states. Trump also took an average of 80 days to decide on requests from solidly Democratic states, more than twice as long as for solidly Republican ones.

The denial involving the August storms is the latest flash point in a long-running feud between Trump and Pritzker, who has made attacks on the president’s policies a centerpiece of his campaign for a third term in the Nov. 3 election. Darren Bailey, the Republican nominee for governor, criticized Pritzker for taking too long to respond to the storms, which did considerable damage to several areas, including the southern suburbs.

In a prepared statement, Bailey said Thursday he was “disappointed” that the Trump administration had denied Illinois relief “after derechos and destructive storms have impacted countless farmers and families across the state.”

“I would ask FEMA to reevaluate and reverse this decision. But if we want to ensure these decisions going forward are not clouded by partisanship, then perhaps it would be wise to have a leader of this state who is willing to work with Democrats and Republicans for the good of this state,” Bailey said. “JB Pritzker goes out of his to act like a bully and insult people for simply disagreeing with him. If politics is at play in this decision — it is because JB Pritzker is a classless bully with no clue how to govern.”

After the storms, Pritzker issued a state disaster proclamation that made additional state resources available for response and recovery, his office said. State agencies, including the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and Office of Homeland Security, have helped local officials with damage assessments and power restoration, among other tasks.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle pledged another $8 million to continue clearing debris from south suburban areas affected by the August storms. Preckwinkle said recently that about 100,000 cubic yards of debris from the area has already been removed.

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