President Donald Trump said Friday that his administration would examine sweeping changes to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and possibly even terminate it via an executive order.
During a hurricane recovery briefing near Asheville, N.C., the president floated an executive order “to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA, or maybe getting rid of FEMA.” He did not give a timeline for when he might put pen to paper on such an order.
Trump appeared to suggest that should he opt to fold the nation’s disaster agency, the federal government would still allocate disaster aid to the states. But once states had those monies, it would be up to state and local officials to clean up and rebuild on their own following natural disasters.
“We’re looking at the whole concept of FEMA,” Trump told reporters after landing in the Tar Heel State. “FEMA has really let us down and the country. … I’d like to see the states take over.”
Moments later, during the briefing in Fletcher, N.C., Trump expounded on his belief that state and local leaders would be better-suited to help their communities during crises.
“I think when you have a problem like this, I think you want to go and whether it’s a Democrat or Republican governor, you want to use your state to fix it and not waste time calling FEMA,” he said.
“And then FEMA gets here, and they don’t know the area, they’ve never been to the area, and they want to give you rules that you’ve never heard about,” he added. “They want to bring people that aren’t as good as the people you already have.”
Trump said he planned to ask Congress for emergency funds to help western North Carolina, which was hit hard by Hurricane Helene’s strong winds and heavy rain, producing massive flooding and landslides.
The president’s remarks came after his pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security, of which FEMA is a part, suggested last week she would work to reinforce agency operations.
“As secretary, I will enhance our emergency preparedness and strengthen FEMA capabilities, and we will ensure that no community is left behind and that lifesaving services like electricity and water are quickly restored,” South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said at her confirmation hearing.
Making it political
Trump’s first domestic trip since returning to power Monday featured a pair of contradictory statements about the disaster response agency.
He first pointed the finger at his predecessor over what he viewed as FEMA’s shortcomings in North Carolina.
“They haven’t done the job because they weren’t really told to do the job by [Joe] Biden,” Trump said.
But earlier in the day, when asked by reporters about blame, Trump appeared to give the 46th president a pass: “I don’t know if it’s Biden’s fault.”
Trump’s remarks in North Carolina were interspersed with politics, with the president pointing out that he had won the state in each of his three campaigns.
“One of the reasons we won so convincingly was our promise to get North Carolina fixed up,” he said. “We just appreciate the outpouring of love here.”
California visit
From the Asheville area, Trump is headed to California on his fourth full day back in office. There, he will tour areas hit hard by wildfires and be briefed by local officials.
Trump on Friday appeared to slap conditions on any federal funding for the Golden State — something he did not do for the North Carolina dollars he said he would request from Congress.
“I want to see two things in Los Angeles: voter ID, so that the people have a chance to vote, and I want to see the water be released and come down into Los Angeles and throughout the state.”
Since the fires began raging around Los Angeles several weeks ago, Trump has contended that water from northern California has been withheld from areas hit by the fires further south and blamed Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. A CNN fact check found that his claims were largely made up of “exaggerations, inaccuracies and an overarching false narrative.”
“I don’t think we should give California anything until they let water flow down into their system,” Trump told Fox News in an interview that aired Wednesday evening. “This is a political thing.”
Newsom — whom Trump frequently derides on social media as “Newscum” — was scheduled to meet the president when Air Force One lands in California later Friday.
One person who is not heading to California with Trump is the state’s newest senator, Democrat Adam Schiff, a longtime critic of the president. Schiff told MSNBC on Friday that he had been invited to join Trump on the visit to the areas affected by the wildfires but declined due to votes in the Senate.
It long has been customary for a White House to invite the congressional delegation from a state in which the president is seeing disaster damage in person to travel on Air Force One and participate in tours and briefings.
“I’m glad he’s going to see the devastation because, I think, frankly, until you see it, and the scope of it, whole neighborhoods gone, block after block after block, it’s hard to wrap your head around,” Schiff said on the “Morning Joe” program. “I think, I hope, he can’t help but be moved by what he’s seen. And I would hope, also, that we can get away from this kind of partisan talk of conditioning aid to California.”
Asked as he left the White House on Friday morning why he had invited Schiff on the trip, Trump replied: “I don’t know. I mean, I really don’t. You know, because if he’s going to be there, it would be cheaper, but I didn’t invite him. Somebody did.”
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