Trump approves disaster assistance to DC to help with sewage spill into Potomac River

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has approved emergency assistance to Washington, D.C., to help the city address a sewage system leak that dumped at least 250 million gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac River.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced Trump’s approval on Saturday, allowing FEMA to provide equipment and resources to help with the response to the Jan. 19 spill after a pipeline ruptured.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser had requested the federal help on Wednesday and declared an emergency.

Trump’s approval of the disaster relief request comes after he criticized the handling of the spill, blaming local Democratic leaders and focusing especially on Maryland’s Democratic Gov. Wes Moore.

At a dinner later at the White House for governors, where no Democrats were spotted, Trump brought up the spill and said, “We have to clean up some mess that Maryland and Virginia have left us. We’re going to be cleaning it up. It’s unbelievable what they can do with incompetence.”

He said in his social media posts criticizing the response that local officials had not asked for emergency help ...