Donald Trump blamed Democrats for the sewage spill dumping gallons of raw wastewater into the Potomac River and said the federal government will step in due to a slow response from Maryland leaders.
He announced on Monday that Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) authorities will take the lead on mitigating the spill – despite previously committing to eliminating that federal agency.
And due to the partial government shutdown, these employees will be working without pay during the clean-up, which, according to some estimates, could span upwards of nine months or even a year.
The President said it’s Maryland Democratic Governor Wes Moore’s fault that the Potomac River has turned ‘the heart of Washington into a disaster zone.’
‘I cannot allow incompetent Local ‘Leadership’ to turn the River in the Heart of Washington into a Disaster Zone,’ he wrote.
‘The Federal Government has no choice, but to step in. FEMA, which is currently being defunded by the Democrats, will play a key role in coordinating the response,’ Trump added in a Truth Social post.
This comes after Trump has repeatedly said that states and localities should take direct ownership of disaster response, and that the federal government’s role should be supplying requested funding relief for any response, mitigation and clean-up efforts.
‘For the last four weeks, the Trump Administration has failed to act, shirking its responsibility and putting people’s health at risk,’ Ammar Moussa, a spokesperson for Governor Moore, told the Daily Mail.
President Donald Trump announced on Monday that FEMA authorities will take over DC sewage spill mitigation despite the partial government shutdown meaning employees will have to respond to the disaster without pay
A collapse along a sewage line in Montgomery, Maryland last month resulted in a spill of approximately 300 million gallons of wastewater into the Potomac River
‘The Potomac isn’t a talking point, and the people of the region deserve serious leadership that meets the moment,’ Moussa added.
The President has not spoken with Moore, rather the spat continues to be litigated through public statements and social media posts.
While the Maryland Governor’s spokesperson said it was the responsibility of the federal government to address the Potomac Interceptor failure, Trump continues to throw the issue back to the metro area states, and says ‘the federal government is not at all involved with what has taken place.’
‘Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., who are responsible for the massive sewage spill in the Potomac River, must get to work, IMMEDIATELY,’ the president wrote in a follow-up post to Truth Social on Tuesday.
He demanded: ‘If they can’t do the job, they have to call me and ask, politely, to get it fixed… I am awaiting your call.’
In January 2025, shortly after retaking office, Trump said during a trip to North Carolina to tour Hurricane Helene damage: ‘FEMA’s turned out to be a disaster.’
‘I think we’re going to recommend that FEMA go away and we pay directly, we pay a percentage, to the state, and the state should fix it,’ he said at the time.
Additionally, Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have separately expressed outrage over the Democrat-induced partial government shutdown resulting from their refusal to fund DHS amid clashes over ICE and CBP immigration operations.
This leaves FEMA and several other agencies underneath the massive DHS umbrella without funding.
The President and DHS Secretary vowed over the last year the administration would ‘eliminate FEMA,’ leading to confusion over why the two are outraged Democrats have done exactly that.
‘Democrats in Congress have shut down FEMA funding—leaving our hard working employees to work without pay—yet FEMA is now stepping in to coordinate cleanup of one of the largest raw sewage spills in U.S. history,’ Noem wrote on X.
She lamented that ‘Democrats are withholding paychecks’ from those who are tasked with cleaning up ‘this Democrat-created disaster.’
‘Unbelievable hypocrisy,’ she concluded.
Trump blamed Democratic leadership – specifically calling out Maryland Governor Wes Moore – for ‘incompetent’ mitigation efforts
Essential personnel includes about 90 percent of DHS employees with FEMA, TSA, the Coast Guard, Secret Service, Border Patrol and other agencies. They are required to work without pay during the funding lapse.
DHS did not immediately respond to the Daily Mail’s request for comment on the perception that Noem is only angry that FEMA funding has stopped flowing because it was a decision made by Democrats in Congress.
Last month, the Potomac Interceptor sewer line on the Clara Barton Parkway in Montgomery County, Maryland collapsed. It resulted in approximately 300 million gallons of wastewater contaminating the river that runs directly through Washington, DC in the first few weeks of the spill.
The ‘massive ecological disaster,’ as Trump calls it, is one of the largest raw sewage spills in U.S. history.
