While visiting disaster-stricken North Carolina, President Trump said he would sign an executive order overhauling FEMA or possibly getting rid of the agency.
“I’ll also be signing an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA or maybe getting rid of FEMA. I think, frankly, FEMA is not good,” Trump said.
“Whether it’s a Democrat or Republican governor, you want to use your state to fix it and not waste time calling FEMA. And then FEMA gets here and they don’t know the area. They’ve never been to the area. They want to give you rules that you’ve never heard about. They want to bring people that aren’t as good as the people you already have,” Trump continued.
“FEMA has turned out to be a disaster,” he added.
WATCH:
BREAKING: Trump just announced an executive order to REFORM or ELIMINATE FEMA:
“I’ll also be signing an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming or maybe getting rid of FEMA. I think, frankly, FEMA is not good.“
pic.twitter.com/aQuOKHua9c— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) January 24, 2025
CNBC reports:
Trump’s first step in that direction could come soon: He is set to sign an executive order creating a task force to review FEMA and recommend changes to the agency, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed to CNBC.
ADVERTISEMENTThe task force, called the Federal Emergency Management Agency Review Council, will include the Homeland Security and Defense secretaries, as well as other subject matter experts in the private sector.
The group will be directed to deliver Trump a report on FEMA that includes recommended changes — possibly including ditching the agency all together. Semafor first reported the order.
The president later Friday arrived in Los Angeles, which continues to battle wildfires that have ravaged large swaths of the city.
“The problem with FEMA is they come from all over the country. They end up in arguments with your people from California because they wanna do it a totally different way,” Trump said in California.
“You haven’t gotten very much done with FEMA because all you have to do is look at North Carolina. It’s one of the great disasters of all time,” he continued.
“You know who came in and fixed North Carolina or in the process? Other states, people from all over the country came,” he added.
WATCH:
JUST IN: President Trump completely shuts up Democrat congressman Brad Sherman after he tried defending FEMA, gets a loud round of applause.
Sherman: “If I could just defend FEMA for a little bit.”
Trump: “Yea…”
Sherman: *Rambles about FEMA*
Trump: “The problem with FEMA is… pic.twitter.com/XvtE3T0u20
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 25, 2025
Per CNN:
He then said he may soon abolish the agency and instead send money directly to states to manage their own disaster relief efforts.
ADVERTISEMENTAnd he said he was tapping a political ally — Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley, who is from North Carolina — to lead the state’s recovery effort along with Democratic Gov. Josh Stein.
Asked how he would solve North Carolina’s challenges, Trump said he is “not really thinking about FEMA right now.” Instead, he pointed to Whatley and three Republican members of Congress.
“When there’s a problem with a state, I think that that problem should be taken care of by the state. That’s what we have states for — they take care of problems, and a governor can handle something very quickly,” the president said.
He said FEMA “has been a very big disappointment,” and described it as slow, overly bureaucratic and expensive for the federal government.
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