Fletcher, NC – President Donald Trump said on Friday that he planned to “get rid of” the Federal Emergency Management Agency, offering the last sign of the way in which radical changes to the central organization of the country he weighs To respond to disasters.
Speaking during the first trip of his second term, Trump commentary in North Carolina during a briefing on the reinstatement of several months of Hurricane Helene.
“FEMA was a very great disappointment,” said the Republican president. “It’s very bureaucratic. And it’s very slow. Other than that, we are very satisfied with them.”
Trump said Michael Whatley, president of the National Republican Committee, would help coordinate recovery efforts in the state, where storm frustrations continue to linger. Whatley is from North Carolina but does not hold an official government position.
While Trump highlighted his desire to help the North Carolina, a state of the battlefield that voted for him in all his presidential campaigns, he was much less generous towards California, where he plans to visit Los Angeles, ravaged by forest fires later during the day.
Trump reiterated that he wanted to extract state concessions led by Democrats in exchange for assistance in the event of a disaster, including modifications to policies and water requirements that voters must show identification during the vote of the ballots.
Beyond Trump’s criticism of FEMA, he suggested a spectacular overhaul of the role of the federal government in the response to disasters.
“I would like to see the States dealing with disasters,” he said after landing in the Asheville region. “May the state take care of tornadoes and hurricanes and all the other things that happen.”
Trump said it would be faster than sending FEMA.
“Fema simply did not do the job,” said the president. “We look at the whole concept of fema.”
The agency helps respond to disasters when local managers request a presidential emergency declaration, a signal that damage exceeds the state’s capacity to manage alone. FEMA can reimburse governments for recovery efforts such as deletion of debris, and it offers financial assistance to STOPGAP to individual residents. Some of Trump’s conservative allies have proposed to reduce the amount of money that the agency should provide.
Trump criticized former President Joe Biden for the response of his administration to Hurricane Helene in North Carolina. Friday morning, when he left the White House, he told journalists that “it was a horrible thing about how it was allowed to make a hit” from the storm in September, and “we are going fix”.
After the efforts to recover briefing, Trump went to a small town outside Asheville to meet residents who were helped by the Samaritan handbag, a humanitarian organization led by the evangelical chief Franklin Graham .
Once in California, Trump plans to visit the Pacific Palisades district, where rows of houses have burned on the ground. He should receive a briefing on fires, which are underway, with thousands of people under evacuation orders.
Trump poured out the leaders of California with disdain for water policies who falsely claimed to have aggravated recent shadows. He said that he “would take a look at a fire that could have been turned off if they let the water run, but they did not let the water run”.
Congress members will be at the briefing and the meeting could be controversial. Trump suggested using federal assistance on disasters as a negotiation currency during unrelated legislative negotiations on the government’s loan, or as a California persuasion effect to change its water policies.
“Putting politics with people’s livelihoods is unacceptable and a slap in front of victims of forest fires in southern California and our brave first stakeholders,” said representative Young Kim, a Republican of County D ‘Orange, south of Los Angeles, in a recent declaration.
Trump has a history of politics and lies in disaster response. During his first mandate, he spoke of limiting aid for democratic states that did not support him, according to former administration officials. While presenting himself to the presidency of last year, he said without proof that the Democrats “put themselves in four so as not to help people in the republican regions” of the state of the battlefield of North Carolina .
He also focused on California water policies, in particular fish conservation efforts in the northern part of the state.
“I don’t think we should give anything in California before letting water flow,” said Trump in an interview with Sean Hannity from Fox News Channel on Wednesday.
The president also suggested moving more responsibilities to individual states for disaster management.
“I prefer to see the States dealing with their own problems,” he told Hannity, adding that “Fema hinders everything.”
Michael Coen, who was chief of staff to FEMA during the Biden administration, said Trump was “poorly informed” of an agency that provides critical aid to the States when they are overwhelmed by the disaster.
In addition, Coen criticized the idea of attaching chains to help.
“You will choose winners and losers on which the communities will be supported by the federal government,” he said. “I think the American people expect the federal government to be there for them the worst day, no matter where they live.
The last time Trump was president, he visited many disaster areas, including the suites of hurricanes and tornadoes. He sometimes aroused criticism, as when he threw paper towels to the survivors of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.
“If you are a survivor in the event of a disaster, no matter who you voted for, it’s always good when the president comes to town,” said Pete Gaynor, who led the FEMA during the first Trump administration between 2019 and 2021. “You can see and see him and I hope to tell him about what you need in your community.
Laurie Carpenter, a 62 -year -old retirement in Newland, North Carolina, said that she was looking forward to Trump’s visit because she was disappointed with the federal response. She said there were still debris and garbage scattered around her part of the months of state after Hurricane Helene.
“If someone wants to do something, I think they will,” said Carpenter.
Trump called on Cameron Hamilton, a former Navy Seal with limited experience managing natural disasters, as an acting director of FEMA. He also said that individual states should be responsible for directing the response to natural disasters rather than in FEMA, and that the federal government should only intervene to provide funding.
Biden promised before leaving his duties that the federal government will cover all the costs of response to forest fires around Los Angeles, which could end up being the most expensive natural disasters in American history. However, this promise will only be held if the Congress no longer finds funding.
Friday’s trip could cause uncomfortable conversations on climate change, which Trump has played and denied. Hurricane Helene and Los Angeles forest fires were both exacerbated by global warming.
In the case of Hélène, a study of international climatologists of the allocation of global weather revealed that climate change has increased storm precipitation by 10%. In California, the state has undergone a record fall and a dry winter – its traditional wet season – which made the area around Los Angeles more vulnerable to flames.
“It only breaks our comfort zone of what is supposed to be normal,” said the researcher at the University of Oregon, Amanda Stasiewicz.
After visiting North Carolina and California, Trump plans to hold a rally on Saturday in Las Vegas.
___ The writers of the associated press Stephen Groves, Seth Borenstein and Makiya Saminraa contributed to this report.
