During his visit to North Carolina Friday, Donald Trump floated the idea of making changes to how the federal government responds to natural disasters—including getting rid of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“We’re looking at the whole concept of FEMA. I like, frankly, the concept when North Carolina gets hit, the governor takes care of it. When Florida gets hit, the governor takes care of it. Meaning the state takes care of it,” Trump told reporters on the tarmac in Asheville, citing the effects of Hurricanes Helene and Milton on the southwestern U.S. last year.
Trump also said that disaster aid for North Carolina and California, both of which happen to be states with Democratic governors, would go directly through his administration rather than FEMA. Later, meeting with local officials during his visit, Trump said he’d be signing an executive order to begin reforming or even getting rid of the agency.
“I think, frankly, FEMA is not good,” Trump said. “FEMA has turned out to be a disaster…. I think we’re going to recommend that FEMA go away.”
Eliminating the agency altogether would require congressional approval, and would result in more than 20,000 federal employees losing their jobs. Trump also discussed getting rid of FEMA on Wednesday in an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity, saying that he’d “rather see the states take care of their own problems.”
But between 2015 and 2024, Republican-led states such as Florida, Texas, and Louisiana received the majority of federal disaster aid. Any cuts to FEMA would end up affecting states that voted for him in the last three presidential elections. Perhaps Trump sees this as an acceptable price for the power to restrict aid to other places whenever he pleases.
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