Trump has promised disaster relief for North Carolina, California by canceling FEMA, according to Reuters
By Nandita Bose and Steve Holland
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to close the Federal Emergency Management Agency during a tour of disaster areas in North Carolina and California and sparred with Democratic officials.
Trump’s visit to the two states, which have been hit by hurricanes and large wildfires since taking office on Monday, has shown interest. But he criticized his visits to FEMA, promising to sign an executive order to revamp or eliminate the main federal agency that responds to natural disasters.
“FAMA became a disaster,” he said while visiting a North Carolina neighborhood devastated by Hurricane Helene in September. “I think we recommend that FEMA go.”
Trump has accused FEMA of undermining emergency relief efforts there and said he would prefer federal funds be given to states to deal with disasters on their own.
The president also criticized California’s response to the devastating Los Angeles fires, but pledged to work with Gov. Gavin Newsom and offered help to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass when he visited the state.
“We’re looking to get something done. And the way you get it done is to work together to manage the region, and we’re going to get it done. They need a lot of federal help,” Trump said. Air Force One later landed in Los Angeles, Newsom told reporters after meeting him on the tarmac.
Three massive wildfires are still threatening the region.
Newsom, a Democrat who has been close to the Republican leader, told Trump that California needed his support.
Trump accused Newsom and Bass of “gross incompetence” and threatened that Republican colleagues in Congress would not block disaster aid.
In talks with California officials, Trump joined forces with Bass and another Democratic lawmaker to press the mayor to use emergency powers to allow people to quickly return to their properties and clear debris on their own. Bass emphasized the importance of safety and legislative representative Brad Sherman praised FEMA’s work.
Trump asked Richard Grenell, the former ambassador to Germany, to respond to the California wildfires.
Water fight, FEMA shutdown?
Trump has previously threatened to withhold aid to California and repeated false claims that Newsom and other officials in North Carolina refused to provide water from the northern part of the state to fight the fires.
The lack of water has caused some reservoirs in the rich Pacific Palisades to dry up, hampering early response. At the time of the fire, one of the reservoirs that could provide additional water to the area had been empty for a year. The authorities have promised to investigate why it is dry.
Bus and fire officials stressed that the water carriers were not designed to handle such a massive disaster and that the fire was unprecedented.
Meanwhile, experts doubt Trump alone can shut down FEMA.
Rob Verczyk, a former Obama administration Environmental Protection Agency official and now a professor at Loyola University’s New Orleans College of Law, said eliminating FEMA would require congressional action.
He said FEMA was created by executive order from former President Jimmy Carter, but the role and funding for the nation’s emergency response programs has been delegated by Congress.
FEMA brings in emergency personnel, supplies, and equipment to help areas begin to recover from natural disasters. Funding for the agency has increased in recent years.
The agency has 10 regional offices and employs more than 20,000 people across the country.
FMA was a target of Trump’s second-term conservative blueprint, Project 2025, developed by allies the president withdrew from during the election. The plan calls for dismantling the Department of Homeland Security and moving FEMA to the Department of the Interior or the Department of Transportation.
In addition, the agency proposed changing the formula it uses to determine when to expect federal disaster aid, shifting the costs of disaster prevention and response to states.
Trump complained that his predecessor, Joe Biden, misrepresented the Biden administration’s failure to do enough to recover from Helen in western North Carolina.
In an X post on Friday, Democratic US Representative Deborah Ross of North Carolina said FMA was a critical partner in the state’s hurricane recovery.
“I appreciate President Trump’s concern for Western NC, but eliminating FEMA would be a disaster for our state,” she said.
The trip to North Carolina and California caps a week in which Trump has moved with remarkable speed to fulfill campaign promises on illegal immigration, federal workforce size, labor and environment, gender and diversity policies and a pardon for supporters arrested in January. In the year 6, 2021 attacked the US Capitol.