Remarkable reporting by E&E News confirms what we've been pointing out: Trump has turned federal disaster assistance into a political weapon. Trump is much more likely to deny or slow-walk disaster aid when a request comes from a Democratic-led state. 🧵⬇️

NEW: Russell Vought turns 50 on Thursday. To "celebrate," we're asking you to share how Trump's OMB director has made life worse for you or others, and how he has made all of us more susceptible to avoidable calamities. Vought is wrecking society in relative anonymity. Help us make him infamous.

Jesus, they're calling it "Operation Total Extermination."

The world energy shock is coming — it will deepen inequality in ways we've seen before. Our new @newstatesman1913.bsky.social piece argues that without urgent government action, the Strait of Hormuz crisis will ripple through our economies and rip apart our societies. Here's why. 1/

In what should be a surprise to no one, the US and Israeli attack on Iran has serious climate consequences. Our new analysis, covered in @theguardian.com this morning, tallies the climate costs of the first two weeks of the attacks.

If food safety gets worse, or you get hurt because your workplace is less safe, or you can't get adequate care from the VA, there's a likely villain behind your pain—OMB Director Russell Vought.

One year ago, we warned that DOGE's attacks on federal workers would result in preventable suffering and death. That remains true today even though Elon Musk is no longer the face of Trump's government demolition project. The assault continues to be led, with less fanfare, by Russell Vought. 🧵1/2

Vought has institutionalized DOGE in his role as OMB director. From breaking the civil service through mass firings to unlawfully blocking the disbursement of funds appropriated by Congress, Vought has been at the forefront of establishing a far-right government in the image of oligarchs. 2/2

Since Dec. 15, FEMA's Office of Response and Recovery has been led by Gregg Phillips, an election denier with no relevant experience. That's one of the ways Trump and Vought have effectively destroyed FEMA (even if there's now less talk of abolishing the agency).

The U.S. West is enduring a heatwave (it's still winter). Trump has put more people in danger, as we explained in August. An underrecognized figure in this is Russell Vought. Purging heat experts from the civil service, freezing investments in heat resilience, and jeopardizing energy assistance.

NEW: Sen. Andy Kim asked Sen. Markwayne Mullin if he would commit to revoking Kristi Noem’s “disastrous” $100,000 grant approval rule should he be confirmed as DHS Secretary. Mullin replied, “Absolutely… I’m not a micromanager.” Our statement: therevolvingdoorproject.org/mullin-noem-... 🧵⬇️

As our @kennystancil.bsky.social said, “Congress must ensure that [Mullin] keeps his word to rescind Noem’s reckless $100,000 grant approval rule.” As long as it exists, he added, “the Vought-led evisceration of FEMA will continue, putting all of us at risk of avoidable calamities.”

Full statement here: therevolvingdoorproject.org/mullin-noem-...

It's impossible to overstate the devastating effects of Noem’s spending approval directive, which is a reflection of Vought’s selective impoundment agenda. More info here: therevolvingdoorproject.org/mullin-noem-...

The DOGE Depos were incredibly revealing: DOGE used ChatGPT to cut grants, discriminated based on race and gender, and used Signal to evade federal records laws. Imagine what we'd learn if a Democratic Congress subpoenaed every member of DOGE, from Elon Musk down, to testify before Congress.

New for @slate.com: our @hannahstoryb.bsky.social writes that Justice Alito's conflicts of interest go deeper than we knew in an upcoming case. Alito recently broke from precedent and failed to recuse when granting oil companies' petition against Boulder in a long-running climate liability suit...

Thanks to @kennystancil.bsky.social for producing this excellent breakdown of state capacity amongst insurance regulators therevolvingdoorproject.org/mapping-home...

NEW: Dwindling home insurance availability and affordability is a clear manifestation of fossil fuel-driven climate chaos. Today, the Revolving Door Project published two tools to help illuminate aspects of this worsening crisis. 🧵⬇️

1) "Tracking State Insurance Commissioners" summarizes information about current state-level insurance regulators and their immediate predecessors, including details about their professional backgrounds and, in the case of ex-regulators, their subsequent career moves.

As our @kennystancil.bsky.social said, "It's a lot easier to be an ambitious, pro-consumer and pro-climate regulator when you aren't trying to preserve friendships with profit-maximizing insurance CEOs." Read more about insurance industry "revolvers": therevolvingdoorproject.org/tracking-sta...

2) "Mapping Home Insurance Regulation" documents state-based regulatory differences and the extent to which various state insurance departments are under-resourced.

"Allowing major institutional investors... to be supervised by an insufficient number of overworked regulators on a shoe-string budget is a recipe for disaster," Stancil added. See our interactive visuals on state regulatory capacity here: therevolvingdoorproject.org/mapping-home...

Check out our other work on the fossil fuel-driven home insurance crisis here:

People will die, needlessly, but oligarch profits will be maintained! We're living in a dystopia designed by Russell Vought. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/c... (gift link)

Due to Noem's $100k grant approval rule, which is still active despite her firing, search-and rescue crews have been forced to work without the aid of a tool that pinpoints the hardest-hit areas. Yet more evidence of how the Trump regime is making disasters worse, a topic we've covered in detail.

NEW: Tomorrow marks three years since Silicon Valley Bank's failure. Despite the passage of time, accountability remains elusive. For @prospect.org, our @timi-iwayemi.bsky.social breaks down how Fed Vice Chair Michelle Bowman's calls for a new review ring hollow. prospect.org/2026/03/09/t...

This is what we mean when we say DOGE lives on through Russell Vought. A right-wing ideologue is single-handedly imposing a deadly austerity regime.

“The forces we are up against have made peace with mass death. They are treasonous to this world and its human and non-human inhabitants.”

Nearly 60 years ago, Ohio's Cuyahoga River was so polluted it caught fire, galvanizing the environmental movement that gave us the Clean Water Act and other lifesaving environmental laws. The AI industry's vision of our future hinges on a return to an era of unchecked industrial pollution.

Billions of dollars in federal disaster money has been tied up by Noem's $100k grant approval rule. Now, Trump is releasing $5B in overdue aid, but not to CA, IL, MN, & CO—Democratic-led states w/ governors Trump has maligned. Using disaster relief as a political weapon is unconscionable. More ⬇️

This is OMB Director Russell Vought's DOGE in action. And as we argued last year, it's going to kill a lot of people: prospect.org/2025/03/19/2...

“We don’t have a government that’s properly staffed,” she said. “All of these things [federal workers do] are really part of making life a little fairer, a little safer for the public. We’ve lost that.” www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/26/n...

after failed military incursion, us government responds with economic sanctions

NEW Corruption Calendar In our latest edition, @timi-iwayemi.bsky.social analyzes into Trump’s shakedown of the IRS, his backroom deals with the Emirati government, ICE’s plans to build camps across the country, and more.

One year in, Doug Burgum’s tenure at the Department of the Interior has been an unmitigated disaster. He’s sabotaged wind energy development across the East Coast, he’s all but ignored historic fires in National Parks, he’s endeavored to censor &redefine history on public lands. tinyurl.com/3vfvnxmx

Our @toni-v-aguilar.bsky.social is out in @thenation.com today looking at Trump’s latest grift machine+the slate of far-right agitators, Christian nationalists, book banners, & more he's partnering with to takeover the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. More: tinyurl.com/vjwxbyjh

Some children in Dilley were so distraught they cut themselves or talked about suicide, parents told ProPublica. They said kids lost their appetites after finding worms and mold on their food, had trouble sleeping, and were constantly sick.

Bad Bunny, the world's most streamed artist for four years in a row, is also an eloquent critic of disaster capitalism. Our newsletter delves into the climate politics of his half-time show, from the sparking utility poles to the endangered toad that represents Puerto Rico’s imperiled heritage.

Helpful piece from @revolvingdoordc.bsky.social

Trump's FEMA has gone on a denial spree this week. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers' (D) appeal for Public Assistance was rejected even though a joint preliminary damage assessment validated more than $26.5 million in eligible PA disaster costs, well above the state's $11.4 million threshold. More in 🧵⬇️

As Evers noted in a statement, "Efforts to rebuild will cost tens of millions" of dollars, which "local communities will be on the hook for." He added that "it's really disappointing to see our federal leadership turn their backs on Wisconsin, our families, and our communities in our time of need."

FEMA recently denied five major disaster declaration requests/appeals that Trump had been sitting on for more than 11 weeks. Trump rejected requests from the Pueblo of Acoma tribal government, Arizona, and Kansas following waiting periods of 108 days, 89 days, and 78 days, respectively.

Trump denied an appeal from Vermont 169 days after Gov. Phil Scott's (R) original request and despite the fact that "federal assessors identified more than $1.8 million in statewide damages, exceeding the minimum threshold for a Public Assistance disaster declaration," according to Scott’s office.

Trump also denied an appeal from Illinois 145 days after Gov. JB Pritzker's (D) original request and despite a historic damage-to-wealth ratio. For more on the scale of the destruction, read this reporting by E&E News:

WI, VT, and IL had previously sued the Trump regime for withholding emergency preparedness funding and shuttering FEMA's foremost pre-disaster mitigation program (BRIC). AZ joined the latter lawsuit, too. We detailed this punitive dynamic in The American Prospect: prospect.org/2025/12/05/t...

Trump lost IL and VT by 11 points and 31 points, respectively, in 2024. Trump often boasts about his electoral victories when he (partially) approves requests for disaster aid. Such rhetoric suggests that decisions may be driven by partisan considerations. www.nationaljournal.com/s/730377/wit...

We're keeping tabs on Trump's refusal to fairly allocate federal disaster aid in a timely manner.

NEW: Trump's first year back in the White House has been quite profitable: his presidential grift added billions to the family fortune. The self-dealing comes with a price tag, however, & working families are paying the real costs of Trump's corruption.

"DOGE’s objective was never to save taxpayer dollars. Musk did not 'fail'...DOGE was—and remains, through Vought’s OMB—an effort to extinguish the existing government and create a new one in the image of oligarchs and far-right ideologues."

DOGE isn't really gone, it's just become the way that the Office of Management and Budget operates, writes our friends at @revolvingdoordc.bsky.social. prospect.org/2026/02/05/d...