traveled to North Carolina and will continue on to California on Friday to visit people affected by hurricanes and wildfires.
The visits are Trump’s first trips outside of Washington, DC, since taking office in his second term as president.
Trump critical of Biden administration policies and fire response
Trump has heavily criticized California Governor Gavin Newsom and other officials for the response to the wildfires that caused widespread devastation this month.
Trump was among those who , many of which went viral after Elon Musk reposted them on his social media platform X.
Among these claims was that Newsom refused to provide to fight the fires in order to protect an endangered fish species called the delta smelt.
Newsom has said there is no connection between the fish and the fire and that he has not held water from northern California to fight fires in the south of the state.
In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Trump threatened to withhold aid to California and continued blaming the state leadership’s water policies for worsening the fires.
“I don’t think we should give California anything until they let the water run down,” Trump said in an interview Sean Hannity on Wednesday.
Since they broke out, the fires have killed 28 people and damaged or destroyed nearly 16,000 structures, authorities said. Some rain is predicted for the region over the weekend, but much of Southern California remains under an extreme fire warning.
Trump’s response to disaster in North Carolina
Trump has also accused the Biden administration of not doing enough to help western North Carolina in recovery efforts since Hurricane Helene tore through the region in September.
The Biden administration has .
Unlike his comments regarding aid for people affected by fires in California, Trump promised before the election that he would cut red tape and provide federal support in rebuilding homes devastated by Hurricane Helene.
Trump to review ‘whole concept’ of FEMA
But after arriving in North Carolina, Trump questioned the federal government’s role in disaster relief.
“I’ll also be signing an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA, or maybe getting rid of FEMA,” Trump told reporters, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
He added that he would like to see states “take care of disasters” and that he would review “the whole concept” of FEMA.
“Let the state take care of the tornadoes and the hurricanes and all of the other things that happen,” Trump told reporters.
kb/sms (Reuters, AP, AFP)
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