A federal judge ruled DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin cannot withhold Oregon disaster relief over President Donald Trump’s ‘pronoun’ mandates as wildfires burn across the state.
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In a blistering order on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Michael McShane explained why he granted the city of Salem a preliminary injunction on Aug. 13, blocking the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency from tying disaster grants to Trump’s gender ideology and diversity, equity and inclusion agenda.
Salem needed $1,093,800 to repair a flood-damaged road to its West Salem Pump Station after December 2025 storms — but the federal government required the city to first pledge compliance with anti-diversity and anti-“gender ideology” executive orders unrelated to disaster recovery.
“Yet, as wildfires, severe storms, and floods routinely ravage through the State of Oregon, disaster relief has become a tool to advance unrelated executive policy,” McShane wrote in .
“Although it is hard to imagine the connection between the use of preferred pronouns and the fires currently burning through central Oregon,” the judge said.
The conditions covered three grant programs Salem relies on — including funds to replace the only bridge to the Green Island Water Treatment Plant, the city’s sole source of clean drinking water, which fails to meet flood and seismic safety standards.
Salem faced what McShane called a “Hobson’s choice” — sign the conditions the court found likely unconstitutional or forfeit millions in congressionally appropriated disaster funds.
“Nowhere in the briefings, the regulations, or the executive orders does the government attempt to define ‘gender ideology’ or DEI in any helpful way,” McShane explained.
“DHS fails to argue any link between the Trump Administration’s anti-DEI crusade and helping communities prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters,” he added.
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“A cynical reading of the condition would suggest that the administration could retaliate against a political entity (to the detriment of those in need of relief) while protected by the vagaries of convenience, changing priorities, and national interest,” McShane warned, flagging the termination clause as a vehicle for political punishment.
“While FEMA does not comment on pending litigation, this lawsuit is another attempt to obstruct President Trump’s agenda and the will of the American people,” a DHS spokesperson said.
Oregon had 86 active fires burning more than one million acres, with more than 33,000 residents under evacuation orders as of late July, according to Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Ron Wyden (D-OR).
FEMA separately denied firefighting grants for the two largest Oregon wildfires — the East Evans Creek Fire and the Rowe Creek Complex — which marked “a significant departure from FEMA’s historical criteria and agency guidance,” Merkley and Wyden wrote to FEMA.
Oregon Department of Emergency Management Director Erin McMahon warned that communities hit by repeated disasters cannot recover without federal help.
“Our communities are doing the hard work of recovery, but they cannot reduce future risks alone,” McMahon said.
Rep. Janelle Bynum (D-OR) had sounded the alarm a year earlier, after FEMA denied Oregon storm relief requests in 2025.
“If they’re denying this request, who’s to say that they won’t do the same after a wildfire?” Bynum said.
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