At hurricane site, Trump considers axing disaster agency – DW – 01/25/2025

US President Donald Trump traveled to North Carolina before continuing on to California on Friday to visit people affected by hurricanes and wildfires.

The visits are Trump’s first trips outside of Washington, DC, since taking office in his second term as president.

Trump critical of Biden administration policies and fire response

Trump has heavily criticized California Governor Gavin Newsom and other officials for the response to the wildfires that caused widespread devastation this month.

However, as the pair met on the tarmac in California, Trump struck a more positive note, saying: “I appreciate the governor coming out and meeting me,”

He pledged to “get it fixed,” adding: “The way you get it completed is to work together with the governor of the state, and we’re going to get it completed. They’re going to need a lot of federal help.”

Trump was among those who spread numerous false or misleading claims on the wildfires in Los Angeles, many of which went viral after Elon Musk reposted them on his social media platform X.

Among these claims was that Newsom refused to provide water from the northern part of the state to fight the fires in order to protect an endangered fish species called the delta smelt.

Newsom has said there is no connection between the fish and the fire and that he has not held water from northern California to fight fires in the south of the state.

In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Trump threatened to withhold aid to California and continued blaming the state leadership’s water policies for worsening the fires.

“I don’t think we should give California anything until they let the water run down,” Trump said in an interview Sean Hannity on Wednesday.

Since they broke out, the fires have killed 28 people and damaged or destroyed nearly 16,000 structures, authorities said. Some rain is predicted for the region over the weekend, but much of Southern California remains under an extreme fire warning. 

Trump’s response to disaster in North Carolina

Trump has also accused the Biden administration of not doing enough to help western North Carolina in recovery efforts since Hurricane Helene tore through the region in September.

The Biden administration has rejected the allegations as misinformation.

Unlike his comments regarding aid for people affected by fires in California, Trump promised before the election that he would cut red tape and provide federal support in rebuilding homes devastated by Hurricane Helene. 

Trump to review ‘whole concept’ of FEMA

But after arriving in North Carolina, Trump questioned the federal government’s role in disaster relief.

“I’ll also be signing an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA, or maybe getting rid of FEMA,” Trump told reporters, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

He added that he would like to see states “take care of disasters” and that he would review “the whole concept” of FEMA.

“Let the state take care of the tornadoes and the hurricanes and all of the other things that happen,” Trump told reporters.

kb/sms (Reuters, AP, AFP)