President Donald Trump is expressed during a briefing on disasters in a hangar, while going to assess recovery efforts and visit the areas devastated by Hurricane Helene, at the regional airport of Asheville, in Asheville, in North Carolina, January 24, 2025.
Léa MILLIS | Reuters
President Donald Trump said on Friday that he planned to take executive measures to revise – or possibly put an end – to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, criticizing the agency for its response to historic floods in Caroline of the North.
“I think we will recommend that FEMA disappear,” said Trump during a press briefing in Asheville, North Carolina, devastated in September by Hurricane Helene.
The president is expected to go to Los Angeles on Friday, who continues to fight forest fires that have ravaged large sections of the city.
Addressing journalists on the tarmac of the airport when he arrived in Asheville, Trump said: “We are examining the whole concept of Fema”.
“I frankly like the concept that when the North Carolina is affected, the governor takes care of it. When Florida is affected, the governor takes care of it, which means that the state takes care of it,” he said.
“To bring in a group of people from a region who does not even know where they are going, in order to immediately solve a problem is something that has never worked for me,” said Trump.
Trump added that additional Aid to North Carolina and California should come directly from the federal government.
“So, rather than going through Fema, it will go through us,” he said.
Trump’s comments on FEMA seem to line up on the conservative political level known as the 2025 project, which calls for a reform of agency expenses to “transfer the majority of preparation and intervention costs to States and localities rather than towards the federal government ”.
Trump politicized Hélène shortly after his arrival in the United States, criticizing the way President Joe Bid has managed the federal response and spreading lies on the actions of FEMA.
In January, when the Pacific Palisades district of Los Angeles was ravaged by unprecedented forest fires, Trump sought to attribute responsibility for destruction to the Democratic Governor of California, Gavin Newsom.
He also threatened to subordinate federal aid to the fight against forest fires to a change in state water policy.
On November 5, the Biden administration had approved total assistance from FEMA of more than 2.7 billion dollars for the survivors of Helene and Hurricane Milton, who hit the west coast of Florida less than two weeks after Helene.
The New York Times reported earlier on Friday that, even if some former FEMA leaders agreed with Trump that states should be responsible for managing their own disasters, states themselves tend to wish more federal aid.
The Trump administration has not yet revealed a formal proposal aimed at reorganizing FEMA or the federal rescue policy in the event of a disaster.
While he plans to eliminate FEMA, Trump continues to promise the disaster victims that they will receive federal aid.
“We will provide you with the resources you need and the support you deserve,” he said on Friday in Asheville.
