潘金莲传媒映画

President Trump’s U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has rejected a $225 million relief plan for the city of Asheville, North Carolina, due to its inclusion of funding for minority and women-owned businesses.

The Hill, the Asheville Citizens Times and other news outlets that newly installed HUD Secretary Scott Turner denounced Asheville’s application for a Community Development Block Grant for disaster relief. The city, one of the hardest hit by Hurricane Helene last September, had planned to use $15 million of the $225 million for its small business support program, which would assist minority-owned small businesses.

“Once again, let me be clear DEI is dead at HUD. We will not provide funding to any program or grantee that does not comply with President Trump’s executive orders,” Turner said in a news release.

Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order aims to eliminate diversity, equality and inclusion practices in the federal government. The practices were aimed at including minorities, women, disabled people and others in government funding and hiring.

The city has already revised its plan for the Helene-relief grant money, removing mention of the existing small business/minority business funding, local news sites Wednesday. The mayor said the changes are likely to be accepted by HUD, and Asheville is not in danger of losing the grant funding.

The money would be used for infrastructure rebuilding, housing and economic recovery, The Hill .

Asheville, like much of western North Carolina, saw unprecedented flooding from relentless rainfall brought by Hurricane Helene as it moved inland after making landfall in Florida in September 2024.

Photo: Debris left in Asheville after the flooding from Helene. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File)