After Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida in early October, a Federal Emergency Management Agency supervisor reportedly told workers to skip over homes that had signs supporting Trump in the 2024 election.

According to the Daily Wire, which reviewed internal messages, Marn’i Washington told workers in a message to "avoid homes advertising Trump" as they surveyed storm damage in Lake Placid, Florida to identify who may be eligible for federal aid. This message was relayed both verbally as well as in a group chat, government employees told the outlet. 

The employees said that at least 20 homes were bypassed by workers because of Trump signs or flags between the end of October and into November. Images shared with the outlet showed messages written in the government system like "Trump sign no entry per leadership" on skipped houses. Other addresses were marked with "Trump sign," and "per leadership no stop Trump flag."

The employees in the group were part of a surge capacity force team from the Department of Homeland Security, which means they volunteered to help FEMA in the wake of the second major hurricane in the south in just as many weeks.

One employee said, "I know they’re short-staffed, I thought we could go help and make a difference. When we got there we were told to discriminate against people. It’s almost unbelievable to think that somebody in the federal government would think that’s okay."

"I volunteered to help disaster victims, not discriminate against them. It didn’t matter if people were black, white, Hispanic, for Trump, for Harris. Everyone deserves the same amount of help."

The county where people were ordered not to go to Trump houses was Highlands County, which backed Trump by 70 percent in Tuesday’s election. Washington said that it would be “best practice” to “avoid homes advertising Trump." One federal employee told the outlet that Washington had verbally issued the guidance on October 22 and posted it in the group chat on October 27. By October 30, Washington had begun to walk it back. 

Washington is the Disaster Survivor Assistance crew leader for Highland County, and Washington’s FEMA supervisor Chad Hershey told the outlet, "We are aware of it and we are taking proper action in this situation currently."

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