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The two men had been feuding in the months leading up to the wildfire with Trump calling Inslee "a snake," a "nasty person" and a "failed presidential candidate" after the governor criticized the administration's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. And Inslee, in an open letter two days before seeking disaster aid, assailed Trump's "reckless statements" on climate change and his "gutting of environmental policies."

Trump's spurning of Washington " documented by internal emails, letters, federal records and interviews " is the latest example of how the former president used disaster requests to punish political foes. E&E News reported in early October that Trump had refused to give disaster aid to California after wildfires in 2018 because the state is strongly Democratic.

E&E News' current investigation found other previously unreported examples of Trump denying or delaying disaster aid to governors who had criticized him, though the reasons for the White House moves are unclear.