December 23, 2025 09:10 AM UTC

Welcome To Life On Donald Trump's Shit List

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Colorado Newsline’s Lindsey Toomer reported yesterday–when President Donald Trump threatened Colorado with “harsh measures” for continuing to incarcerate former Mesa County Clerk and fellow election denialist Tina Peters, we tried not to speculate too much about what a President relieved of ethical constraints might do with far-reaching executive powers to work his will in uncooperative flyover states like our own.

One possibility, unfortunately not unthinkable at all, was that disaster relief requests to the federal government would be denied:

Colorado officials are urging the Trump administration to reconsider its denial of disaster declarations that would have opened up federal funding to support wildfire and flood recovery in the state.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, asked Republican President Donald Trump to issue major disaster declarations for the Elk and Lee Fires in Rio Blanco County and for flooding in western Colorado. Declarations would have opened up Federal Emergency Management Agency funding to help the Colorado communities recovering from the natural disasters.

Trump denied both requests late Saturday. Polis said affected Coloradans “deserve better than the political games President Trump is playing.”

Colorado Public Radio:

The decision comes after the administration said it would dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder and rescind a number of transportation and energy grants.

The White House countered that there was “no politicization” of the decision.

“The President responds to each request for Federal assistance under the Stafford Act with great care and consideration, ensuring American tax dollars are used appropriately and efficiently by the states to supplement—not substitute, their obligation to respond to and recover from disasters,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement…

And herein lies the dilemma: the President does have the power to evaluate these requests for assistance, and even to deny them. The administration can offer reasonable-sounding excuses for denying these requests all day long if they want to.

But Trump has also threatened Colorado with “harsh measures” over Tina Peters. A growing list of adverse decisions, from moving Space Command citing Colorado’s mail ballots to shutting down NCAR to axing millions in grant funding during and since the recent government shutdown, increasingly point to a common retaliatory motive. GOP Rep. Jeff Hurd is the closest Colorado has to a Republican willing to criticize Trump openly, while swing-district Rep. Gabe Evans who should be filling that role has instead become an unapologetic MAGA mouthpiece. And Hurd is saying it as loudly as he dares between the lines:

GOP Rep. Jeff Hurd’s district is impacted by both decisions. He noted that Western Colorado has long supported Trump, and now the same areas are “facing the real human and economic consequences of recent disasters.”

“Local leaders and residents are seeking a consistent application of FEMA criteria so recovery efforts can move forward,” [Pols emphasis] Hurd said in a statement. He’s asking the Administration to work with the state on an appeal.

Hurd’s hope that the Trump administration will help Colorado appeal Trump’s retaliation against our state is Pollyannish, but Hurd is at least brave enough to call out the administration for not applying “FEMA criteria” consistently. Once we’ve established that is happening, the next question is why.

And Donald Trump has already told us why.