President Donald Trump said Friday he planned to sign an executive order to overhaul the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which may include a recommendation to abolish the agency, marking Trump’s latest criticism suggesting disaster response efforts should instead be carried out by the states.
Trump, in a visit to an area devastated by Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, said states should ... [+]
Trump, who spoke during a visit to Asheville, North Carolina, said he would sign an executive order “fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA,” including “maybe getting rid of” the agency.
Although he did not specify what changes would be made to FEMA, Trump suggested disaster aid funding would come directly from the federal government, but said “when there is a problem with a state, I think that that problem should be taken care of by the state.”
The federal government would supply “a lot of the money” to repair damage caused by Hurricane Helene—which devastated Asheville and other parts of the Southeast in September—and assist with clean-up efforts, including as much as 75% of required funds, Trump said.
Trump criticized FEMA in an interview with Fox News earlier this week, saying he would “rather see the states take care of their own problems” while claiming FEMA has not done its “job the last four years.”
This is a developing story.
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“I think, frankly, FEMA is not good,” Trump said. “I think when you have a problem like this, I think you want to use your state to fix it and not waste time calling FEMA.”