Just send paper towels
Trump was sworn in on Monday and took aim at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) during a Wednesday interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity.
He echoed those comments on Friday after landing at
Asheville Regional Airport in North Carolina, to visit a region devastated by
Hurricane Helene in September.
During his first trip since Inauguration Day, Trump declared that he will "be signing
an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and
overhauling FEMA or maybe getting rid of FEMA.".webp)
In his first term, Puerto Rico was devastated by
storms. When he finally got around to showing up,
here's what Trump gave the Puerto Rican people
"I think, frankly, FEMA's not good," he said.
"I think when you have a problem like this, I think you want to go, and
whether it's a Democrat or Republican governor, you want to use your state to
fix it and not waste time calling FEMA."
"FEMA's turned out to be a disaster," the
president added. "I think we're gonna recommend that FEMA go away and we
pay directly, we pay a percentage to the state, but the state should fix
this."
While attempting to kill FEMA could be legally complicated due to a federal law passed after Hurricane Katrina, Trump's comments sparked concern and criticism. According to CNN:
Officials with FEMA scrambled to understand his comments in
North Carolina Friday, with personnel nationwide calling and texting one
another, trying to figure out what his statements meant for the agency's future
and work on the ground, according to a source familiar.
Trump's desire to eliminate or curtail FEMA could have chilling effects on
emergency response even at state levels, former FEMA Chief Deanne Criswell
told CNN.
"We need to take him at his word, and I think state emergency management
directors should be concerned about what this means for spring tornado
season" and the coming hurricane season, said Criswell, who served under
former President Joe Biden. "Do they have the resources to protect their
residents?"
Responding to Trump's remarks on social media, the think
tank Carolina Forward said that "if you were upset at
how FEMA responds to natural disasters, just wait until they don't exist at
all. (Trump obviously won't do this—he can't, after all—but he'll very likely
make a lot of noise about it and then not actually do anything, as
usual)."
Congresswoman Deborah Ross (D-N.C.) also weighed in on
X, saying that
"FEMA has been a crucial partner in our fight to recover from Hurricane
Helene. I appreciate President Trump's concern about Western N.C., but
eliminating FEMA would be a disaster for our state."
Matt Sedlar, climate analyst at the Center for Economic and
Policy Research (CEPR), noted in a Friday statement that "before he took
office, some wondered whether Trump would actually deny federal disaster aid to
states he considered politically unfriendly. The unpleasant truth is
that in theory he could—and right now he appears willing to test that idea in
reality."
"Trump is already setting the stage for a significant
reduction in federal disaster aid and mitigation funding," warned Sedlar,
who also published an
article on CEPR's website that highlights how Trump's attacks on the agency
relate to the Heritage Foundation-led Project 2025. "He has made repeated
demands that would tie California's aid to specific policy changes he would
like to see, and has even begun discussing the possibility of overhauling
FEMA—if not eliminating it entirely."
"States cannot absorb the costs of these disasters, and
they don't have the money to prevent them either," he stressed. "The
federal government agencies that aim to make the U.S. climate resilient are
already chronically underfunded as it is. If Trump truly wanted to make America
great again, he would prioritize funding for aid and mitigation. Instead, he is
making incoherent political demands and setting Americans up for four years of
uncertainty and suffering."
Shana Udvardy, senior climate resilience policy analyst at
the Union of Concerned Scientists, released a similar statement on Friday.
"The president is suggesting eliminating FEMA. My
question is: Should we also ban hospitals? Both are a means to recovery,"
Udvardy said. "This latest comment stretches the boundaries of reality. If
we abolish federal funding for disaster assistance, municipalities and states
wouldn't be able to cover these types of catastrophic emergencies and people
would be left to fend on their own."
After visiting North Carolina on Friday, Trump took off for
the Los Angeles area, which has been ravaged by recent wildfires. As of press
time, the Hughes Fire was only 56% contained, according
to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Sharing a video of Trump's Friday remarks on social media,
Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.) said that "as someone who's
actually been on the ground in LA, people are grateful for FEMA and want more
help—not less."
Margie Alt, director of the Climate Action Campaign, said in
a Friday statement that "the people of Los Angeles are suffering. They
need and deserve help. Wildfires fueled by high winds and climate change-fueled
drought have destroyed 12,000 homes and killed 27 people in the area so
far."
"Rather than playing the traditional presidential role
of 'comforter in chief,' Donald Trump's visit to the area is performative,
using the tragedy to advance his personal agenda: changing state water
management policy to help his Los Angeles private golf club," Alt
suggested. "Trump's threat to withhold disaster aid to benefit his golf
club seems, unfortunately, to be par for the course when it comes to his
presidency. But the people of Los Angeles deserve better, and quickly."
"Wildfires like these will only get worse and more
frequent if we don't address the climate crisis that is intensifying these
disasters and other extreme weather including flooding, extreme heat, drought,
and more that we are experiencing across the U.S. and the world," she
added. "It is unconscionable to threaten to withdraw federal support to
Americans suffering the effects of this crisis because of where they live or
whom they may have voted for. The climate crisis won't spare anyone."
Alt argued that "the only acceptable course of action
for Trump and the Republican majority in Congress is to stop playing politics
with people's lives. They must ensure that FEMA has the resources it needs, and
need to stop cutting programs designed to help mitigate climate pollution and
pushing for more of the fossil fuels responsible for making this crisis
worse."
U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), ranking member of the
U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said in a Friday statement
that "if Donald Trump cared even one bit about the communities being
ravaged by climate change, he wouldn't hold disaster aid hostage to his
political whims, dismiss the climate crisis as a hoax, or pander to his Big Oil
donors."
"Instead, he'd tackle the carbon pollution driving
these catastrophes and support U.S. clean energy dominance to lower energy
costs for families," he added. "But from day one, Trump's priority
has been rewarding his corrupt fossil fuel donors and sabotaging America's
clean energy future. Now, he's exploiting the suffering caused by extreme
weather to peddle his political agenda—proving once again he's all in for
polluters and all out for the American people."
This isn't the first time Trump—who was previously president
from 2017-21—has come under fire related to disaster response. As The
Associated Press reported Friday:
The last time Trump was president, he visited numerous
disaster zones, including the aftermath of hurricanes and tornadoes. He
sometimes sparked criticism, like when he tossed paper towels to
survivors of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.
Trump tapped Cameron Hamilton, a former Navy SEAL with limited experience
managing natural disasters, as FEMA's acting director.
Reporting on Hamilton's position, The New York Times noted Wednesday
that "since Hurricane Katrina, when the federal response was severely
criticized, FEMA has been led by disaster management professionals who have run
state or local emergency management agencies, or were regional administrators
at FEMA."
