United States President Donald Trump has attacked the Federal Emergency Management Agency, known as FEMA, threatening to dismantle the organisation altogether.
In a visit to hurricane-ravaged North Carolina on Friday, Trump announced he would sign an executive order “to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA — or maybe getting rid of FEMA”.
In place of the agency, the Republican suggested shifting the burden of disaster management to states.
“ When there’s a problem with the state, I think that that problem should be taken care of by the state,” Trump said during Friday’s news conference.
“That’s what we have states for. They take care of problems. And a governor can handle something very quickly, you know?”
Trump was hazy about the timeline for his proposed changes to FEMA, despite repeated questions from reporters.
But Friday’s remarks continue a track record of attacks on the agency, as well as his predecessor, former Democratic President Joe Biden, in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
On September 26, the powerful Category-4 storm struck the Big Bend region of Florida. But even after it made landfall, it continued to plough north, wreaking destruction on parts of Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee.
A total of more than 200 people were killed, as the hurricane brought record rainfall, flooding and tornadoes, leaving places like Asheville, North Carolina, flattened.
North Carolina was one of seven key swing states in the 2024 election that Trump eventually won.
As he campaigned in the days and weeks after the disaster, Trump spread misinformation about the Biden-led disaster response, including that federal relief workers had refused to serve Republican residents — a false assertion.
FEMA later reported that threats had been made to its staff, hampering a door-to-door wellness check operation in western North Carolina. And then-President Biden denounced the misinformation as “un-American”.
“Former President Trump has led this onslaught of lies,” he said in October.
But Trump has continued to hammer home his assertions that the disaster response in North Carolina was inadequate at best, including with a reference in his inaugural speech on Monday.
On Friday, he once again launched into criticisms of both FEMA and Biden, blaming them both for the slow pace of recovery.
“ FEMA is been a very big disappointment. And they cost a tremendous amount of money. It’s very bureaucratic. And it’s very slow,” Trump said at one point.
At another, he lashed out at his Democratic predecessor: “Biden did a bad job. Some residents don’t have hot water, drinking water or anything else. Many of them don’t have quarters. They don’t have anything.”
He also teased his trip later in the day to southern California, where wildfires continue to destroy areas in and around Los Angeles, amid unseasonably dry conditions.
He emphasised that he would place conditions on disaster aid to the Democrat-led state, including that California implements a voter-identification law.
While Trump has said such measures are necessary to prevent voter fraud — a favourite talking point — critics argue they can raise barriers for US citizens who might be eligible to vote but cannot afford or access ID cards.
On the roadside, as Trump’s motorcade passed through western North Carolina, a small group of demonstrators had gathered to protest the president’s repeal of climate-change policies. They pointed out that the climate crisis is credited with exacerbating extreme weather events, like hurricanes and fires.
