Trump: "We're looking at the whole concept of FEMA. I like, frankly, the concept when North Carolina gets hit, the governor takes care of it. When Florida gets hit, the governor takes care of it. Meaning the state takes care of it ... I'd like to see the states take care of disasters."
[image or embed] — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 24, 2025 at 11:13 AM
Trump also said that disaster aid for North Carolina and California, both of which happen to be states with Democratic governors, would go directly through his administration rather than FEMA. Later, meeting with local officials during his visit, Trump said he’d be signing an executive order to begin reforming or even getting rid of the agency.
“I think, frankly, FEMA is not good,” Trump said. “FEMA has turned out to be a disaster…. I think we’re going to recommend that FEMA go away.”
Eliminating the agency altogether would require congressional approval, and would result in more than 20,000 federal employees losing their jobs. Trump also discussed getting rid of FEMA on Wednesday in an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity, saying that he’d “rather see the states take care of their own problems.”
Quercus_ on January 24th, 2025 at 18:54 UTC »
Even if the feds just give money to the states instead of mobilizing fema, that still leaves the states fucked.
Fema has access to massive interstate resources for bringing in disaster response equipment and supplies very quickly. If FEMA is dissolved that all goes away, and the immediate aftermath of these disasters gets much much worse.
TarheelFr06 on January 24th, 2025 at 18:42 UTC »
Abolishing FEMA is only step 1. Step 2 is outsourcing disaster relief to Christian nationalist charities run by his cronies. The charities pick and choose which disasters they bother to help with (only ones in red state) and his buddies skim substantial chunks of money off the top.
RadiantGuess7950 on January 24th, 2025 at 18:34 UTC »
It's concerning to see such a significant agency proposed for dismantling during times of crisis. How would ending FEMA impact disaster response efforts?