Democrat governors have been some of Donald Trump’s harshest critics since he returned to the White House.
They’ve attacked everything from his border policies to his cabinet picks.
But Andy Beshear admitted one truth about Trump that left his own party scrambling.
Kentucky’s Democrat governor gives Trump credit where credit is due
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear dropped a political bombshell that nobody saw coming.
During an interview on Jaime Harrison’s podcast "At Our Table," the Democrat governor did something that would make Nancy Pelosi reach for the antacids.
He praised Donald Trump’s FEMA administration and admitted it was doing a better job than anyone expected.
"The irony of all of it to me is, is Trump’s FEMA on the ground has done a good job in Kentucky," Beshear said during the interview. "They have bettered their customer service. We’re not getting nearly as many complaints. They’re getting a lot of money through individual assistance out to families, especially after flooding. It’s actually a credit to his administration, and it seems to be the thing that they want to undo or unwind. Hopefully, him seeing it personally has an emotional impact because we need FEMA for that emergency response."
The timing of Beshear’s admission couldn’t be more awkward for Democrats.
Just weeks after Trump took office, Democrat politicians and their media allies were predicting disaster if Trump followed through on his campaign promise to overhaul or eliminate FEMA.
Now here’s a Democrat governor – one who’s considering a 2028 presidential run – admitting that Trump’s approach is actually working.
Beshear specifically noted that Kentucky residents aren’t complaining about FEMA’s performance like they used to, and families are getting the financial assistance they need after natural disasters.
"We’re not getting nearly as many complaints," Beshear emphasized, crediting improved customer service under Trump’s leadership.
The governor even admitted that Trump’s FEMA has been "effective on the ground" in Kentucky, directly contradicting the Democrat narrative that Trump would destroy disaster response.
Beshear throws Biden under the bus with devastating comparison
But Beshear didn’t stop at praising Trump.
He went on to deliver a scathing critique of the Biden administration’s bureaucratic failures that would make any Democrat strategist cringe.
The Kentucky governor pointed to specific examples where Biden’s team created so much red tape that effective programs ground to a halt.
He cited Biden’s abandoned well-capping program as a prime example of Democratic incompetence.
"One of my favorite programs that the Biden administration passed was the abandoned well-capping program," Beshear explained. "These are abandoned oil and gas wells that are pumping methane up into the environment, right? It’s causing global warming. Capping them is the only program I’ve ever seen where the environmentalists and the industry were both on board."
So far, so good for Biden, right?
Not so fast.
"So, the program first comes out, we cap more than anybody else in the nation — and then they double the regulations for the second round," Beshear continued. "And what happens? It almost all stops."
The governor described how Biden’s bureaucracy killed its own environmental program through excessive regulations.
"We’re doing a bunch of archaeological studies, but we’re not capping those wells," Beshear said with obvious frustration.
Biden’s internet expansion becomes a bureaucratic disaster
Beshear wasn’t finished exposing the Biden administration’s failures.
He also slammed Biden’s internet expansion efforts, revealing how Democrat bureaucracy prevented a single inch of fiber optic cable from being installed.
"We don’t have one inch of fiber in the ground right now," Beshear admitted. "We created so many rules. We had to get the subcontractor, the subcontractor, and the subcontractor before we ever got any money."
The result of all this Democrat red tape?
"And to this day, all the money is still sitting with the federal government when the states are supposed to get it out," Beshear revealed.
Here’s a Democrat governor essentially admitting that his own party’s approach to governance is so bureaucratic and inefficient that it prevents them from delivering on their promises to voters.
Meanwhile, Trump’s FEMA is getting results in Kentucky without the endless layers of bureaucracy that plagued the Biden administration.
The deeper political implications of Beshear’s admission
Beshear’s comments reveal a much larger problem for the Democrat Party.
If a prominent Democrat governor is publicly praising Trump’s administrative competence while criticizing his own party’s failures, what does that say about the Democrat brand heading into 2026 and 2028?
The governor, who spoke at the 2024 Democrat National Convention and is considered a potential 2028 presidential candidate, seems to understand that voters care more about results than partisan talking points.
"I like to think we got to be the common sense, common ground, get stuff done type of party," Beshear said, implicitly admitting that Democrats haven’t been getting stuff done.
But here’s the political reality Beshear is dancing around – if Trump’s administration is delivering better customer service and more effective disaster response than the previous Democrat administration, voters are going to notice.
The irony, as Beshear noted, is that Trump is now being advised to eliminate or overhaul the very FEMA operation that’s performing well in Kentucky.
"It seems to be the thing that they want to undo or unwind," Beshear said, hoping that Trump’s personal observation of FEMA’s improved performance might change his mind.
Democrat strategists have to be wondering if other Democrat governors are having similar experiences with Trump’s administration but aren’t brave enough to admit it publicly.
Beshear’s honesty about Trump’s competence and Biden’s failures suggests that the traditional partisan script isn’t working anymore, even for ambitious Democrat politicians who need to maintain credibility with voters in purple states.
When a Democrat governor starts giving Trump credit for effective governance while throwing his own party’s record under the bus, you know the political landscape is shifting in ways that should terrify Democrat leadership.
¹ Hanna Panreck, "Kentucky governor praises FEMA under Trump, says its a ‘credit to his administration’," Fox News, August 5, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Ibid.
⁴ Ibid.
⁵ Ibid.
⁶ Ibid.
⁷ Ibid.
⁸ Ibid.
⁹ Ibid.
¹⁰ Ibid.
