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One of the great joys of living in Washington is access to the great Smithsonian museums, all free to the public. But no matter where you go in Washington, you can’t escape politics. As I realized again this week, visiting one of the greatest art exhibitions I’ve ever seen, “The Impressionist Moment,” at the National Gallery.

Over five years, the National Gallery, under the leadership of Curator Mary Morton, assembled an amazing selection of paintings first shown at two competing art shows in Paris in 1874: classical, established artists at the government-sponsored Salon de Paris; and younger, renegade artists at the first gathering of Impressionists.

A longtime fan of Impressionism, it was nevertheless a painting from the Salon that caught my attention: “The Good Samaritan” by Jean-Jacques Henner. Yet, while admiring that powerful portrayal of a passer-by stopping to help the victim of a robbery left lying beaten and half-dead by the side of the road, I couldn’t help but wonder: What if that had been Donald Trump, just passing by?

No doubt how Trump would have handled it. Before offering any assistance, his first question would have been: not “How can I help?” but “Whom did you vote for in the last election?” Which is exactly how Trump is treating victims of the Los Angeles wildfires.

This is nothing new for Trump. In his first term, he turned disaster relief upside down. He showed no empathy for victims of earthquakes, floods, or fires. For him, every natural disaster was simply one more opportunity for him to play politics by telling lies, attacking state and local leaders and withholding aid from parts of the country that didn’t vote for him.

As reported by The Guardian, former Trump administration officials admit that the former president initially refused to release federal disaster aid for wildfires in California in 2018, withheld wildfire assistance for Washington state in 2020, and severely restricted emergency relief to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017 – only because he felt these places were not sufficiently supportive of him. But months later, according to Gov. Ron DeSanti s’ memoir, Trump promised to pay 100 percent of Florida’s costs after Hurricane Michael because “They love me in the Panhandle.”

Last October, in the wake of Hurricane Helene, Trump falsely accused the Biden administration of withholding relief from Republican areas of North Carolina and, again falsely, accused FEMA of redirecting its funds to help undocumented immigrants.

That same pattern’s now playing out in the deadly Los Angeles wildfires. While outgoing president Joe Biden pledged to pay all costs of relocating victims and cleaning up debris for 180 days, incoming president Donald Trump – ignoring the evidence of record 100-mph winds and near-zero rainfall in Southern California since last summer – is using the wildfires as an opportunity for political payback. He smeared Gov. Gavin Newsom as “Newscum.” He blamed Newsom for causing the wildfires. “This is all his fault,” he declared on Truth Social – for not signing a “water restoration document” in 2019 – a document state officials say simply did not exist. He accused Californians of “not maintaining” their forests.

True to form, Trump has also renewed his threat to withhold any additional disaster assistance to Southern California. Demanding that Newsom send more water south (Has he ever heard of the California Water Project?). Trump told a rally in Coachella, California, last fall: “Gavin, if you don’t do it, we’re not giving you any of that money that we send you all the time for the fire, forest fires, you have.”

And now, ever-ready to bend the knee, House Speaker “Maga Mike” Johnson has vowed that any congressional relief to California will only come with “strings attached,” demanding changes in the state’s water policy and management of natural resources – conditions notably lacking in aid Trump sent to GOP-controlled states hammered by hurricanes.

Trump is holding victims of California’s devastating wildfires hostage. He first spread disinformation about reservoirs being empty (they were not) and FEMA running out of money (it had not). Next he ignored the contributing factors of historic winds, months-long drought and climate change. Then, in effect, he told fire victims: “I don’t care how badly you’re suffering. If you don’t change your policies and politics, you’re not going to get any help from me.”

It's a cruel and heartless perversion of disaster relief, which, as every first-responder knows, is first and foremost to help people in trouble. Period. Republican or Democrat. No questions asked, no politics involved. Somebody should tell Donald Trump.

(Bill Press is host of The BillPressPod, and author of 10 books, including: “From the Left: My Life in the Crossfire.” His email address is: bill@billpress.com. Readers may also follow him on Twitter @billpresspod and on BlueSky @BillPress.bsky.social.)

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