Trump is considering abolishing FEMA, promised help North Carolina in California in the case of Reuters Catastrophe
Authors Nandita Bose and Steve Holland
LOS Angeles (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump on Friday floated a federal emergency management agency during traveling to the disaster areas in North Carolina and California, where he promised the support of the Government and discussed with Democratic officials.
Just after he assumed his duty on Monday, Trump’s visit showed the desire to appear early in two countries, affected by hurricane and huge forest fires. But he broke through the visit to FEMA, promising to sign the executive order on the audit or abolition of the main federal agency that responds to natural disasters.
“Fema has proven to be a disaster,” he said during a tour of the neighborhoods in North Carolina destroyed by the September Hurricane Helena. “I think we recommend that Fema leave.”
Trump has accused FEMA of missing out of ambulance and said that he preferred to get the states of federal money to solve disaster themselves.
The president also criticized the response of California to the fires in Los Angeles, which caused broad destruction, but promised to cooperate with Governor Goverer Gavin Newsom and offered assistance to Mayor Los Angeles Karen Bass during a visit to the state.
“We ask us to finish something. And the way you can finish it is that we work together at the management of the state, and we will finish it. They will need a lot of federal help to them,” Trump told reporters after he met him on the runway when Air is Air Force One landed in Los Angeles later.
Three huge fires continue to threaten the region.
News, a Democrat who had a tense relationship with a Republican leader, said Trump that California would need his support.
Trump accused Newsom and Bass of “great incompetence”, and a Republican colleague in Congress threatened to deny assistance in the event of a disaster.
During a meeting with California officials, Trump quarreled with Bass and another Democratic MP, pressing the mayor to use his extraordinary powers, allow people to return to their estates quickly and allow them to remove the remains themselves. Bass emphasized the importance of security, and the legislator, MP Brad Sherman, praised the work of FEMA.
Trump asked Richard Grenella, a former ambassador to Germany, to represent him in response to fires in California.
Fighting for water, fiery extinguishing?
Trump has previously threatened to deny California’s assistance and repeated in North Carolina a false claim that News and other officials refused to provide water from the northern part of the state to fight fire.
Water shortages were caused by the drying of some hydrants in the rich Palisades, interfering with an early response. When the fires broke out, one of the tank that could supply more water in the area was empty for a year. Officials promised an investigation into why it was dry.
Bass and firefighters said the hydrants were not designed to deal with such a great disaster and emphasized the nature of the firefighters.
In the meantime, experts suspect Trump can close FEMA himself.
Rob Verchick, a former Obama Administration official at the Environmental Protection Agency, and now a professor at the Lawal University of Loyola in New Orleans, said the elimination of FEMA most likely requires the Congress action.
He said that FEMA was founded by former President Jimmy Carter with an executive order, but the Congress assigned her roles and funds for answering programs to emergencies in the country.
FEMA brings staff for emergencies, supplies and equipment to help the areas to start recovering from natural disasters. The funding of the agency has jumped in recent years as extreme weather has increased the demand for its services.
The agency has 10 regional offices and employs more than 20,000 people across the country.
Fema was the target of the 2025 project, a conservative draft for Trump’s second term prepared by his allies, of which the president distanced himself during the election. The plan required the dissolution of the Ministry of Homeland Security and the relocation of FEMA to the Ministry of the Interior or the Ministry of Transport.
In addition, it is proposed to change the formula used by the Agency to determine when federal help in the event of a catastrophe is justified, transferring the costs of preventing and responding to the state disasters.
Trump complained that his predecessor Joe Biden did not do enough to help western N
In the announcement of X on Friday, the US Democratic Party MP Deborah Ross from North Carolina said Fema was a key partner in the recovery of the state from Hurricane.
“I appreciate the concern of President Trump for Western NC, but the elimination of FEMA would be a disaster for our country,” she said.
Traveling to North Carolina and California culminates in the week during which Trump progressed at incredible speed to fulfill the election promises of illegal immigration, the size of federal labor, energy and the environment, gender policy and diversity policies, and pardoning for supporters closed for 1. 6 2021. , attack on American capitol.
