Hypocrisy comes at you fast — Kristi Noem demonized FEMA as evil incarnate until she needed their checkbook

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has suggested that 1 in 6 female Lahaina wildfire survivors in 2023 traded sexual favors for necessities, citing a study from Tagnawa, a Filipino feminist disaster response organization.

Noem didn’t say FEMA was responsible for the exploitation, but implied FEMA’s poor response contributed to the situation. Noem’s remarks at a July 9 FEMA review meeting align with President Trump’s threats to dismantle the disaster response agency, even as vital federal emergency resources are actively deployed to Central Texas after catastrophic flooding.

What did the Tagnawa study say?

Contrasting what Noem said, the Tagnawa study didn’t find that 1 in 6 Lahaina wildlife survivors resorted to “survival sex in exchange for basic necessities post-disaster,” with federal emergency responders, but with “a landlord, an employer, family members,” or friends, and acquaintances. It did not specify or imply that these acts were with federal emergency responders or directly related to FEMA’s distribution of aid.

But at the FEMA review meeting, Noem said none of the women “had conversations that resulted in getting assistance that was helpful or any clarity in their situations. The situation in Lahaina was so bad that one in six survivors were forced to trade sexual favors, other favors for just basic supplies.”

Noem added, “This job of remaking this agency is not nearly as simple as it should be. Because we’re up against decades of gross mismanagement and negligence. The list of FEMA’s failures is staggering. The scale of those failures is matched only by their longevity. FEMA has been disastrous at times, incompetent at times. And not just in the last few years but for decades.”

The May DHS memo

When pressed on the 1 in 6 statistic, Noem referred to a May Department of Homeland Security memo condemning the FEMA Lahaina response under Biden. In it, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said, “1 in 6 survivors of the Lahaina Fires were forced to engage in sexual acts in exchange for basic necessities like food and housing. These women — our fellow American citizens — were so desperate for food that they had to resort to such extreme measures just to feed themselves in our own country. That’s unacceptable. That is unAmerican.

McClaughlin added, “While American citizens from Hawaii to North Carolina suffered, Biden and Mayorkas used FEMA as a piggy bank, spending hundreds of millions of American taxpayer dollars to housing illegal aliens, including at the Roosevelt Hotel that served as a Tren de Aragua base of operations and was used to shelter Laken Riley’s killer.”

Tagnawa’s response

Responding to Noem’s comments, Tagnawa study co-author Jabola-Carolus told POLITICO that the report was not intended as a critique of FEMA, but rather as a call for increased funding to help the agency better address women’s needs during disasters, directly opposing the Trump administration’s agenda. She called Noem’s use of the study a “misrepresentation” of its findings.

“I’m more concerned about the gross manipulation of that statistic to push the opposite of what the report actually calls for,” Jabola-Carolus said. “We’re advocating for more funding for FEMA to improve their response to women’s needs.”