US President Trump threatens to abolish FEMA during tour of North Carolina

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, has been attacked by US President Donald Trump and threatened to completely demolish it.

Trump made the announcement in an appearance in North Carolina on Friday that he would sign an executive order “to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA — or perhaps getting rid of FEMA.”

The Republican suggested shifting disaster management’s responsibilities to the states instead of the agency.

“  When there’s a problem with the state, I think that that problem should be taken care of by the state”, Trump said during Friday’s news conference.

“That’s what we have states for. They take care of problems. And a governor can handle something very quickly, you know”?

Despite being repeatedly questioned by reporters, Trump was unsure about the timeline for his proposed changes to FEMA.

But Friday’s remarks continue a track record of attacks on the agency, as well as his predecessor, former Democratic President Joe Biden, in the wake of Hurricane Helene.

On September 26, the powerful Category-4 storm struck the Big Bend region of Florida. But even after it made landfall, it continued to plough north, wreaking destruction on parts of Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee.

A total of more than 200 people were killed, as the hurricane brought record rainfall, flooding and tornadoes, leaving places like Asheville, North Carolina, flattened.

In the 2024 presidential election, Trump ultimately won North Carolina, one of the seven crucial swing states.

Trump misled voters during his campaign in the days and weeks following the disaster, including allegations that federal relief workers had refused to serve Republican residents.

A door-to-door wellness check operation in western North Carolina was hampered by FEMA’s later reports that threats had been made to its employees. And then-President Biden denounced the misinformation as “un-American”.

“Former President Trump has led this onslaught of lies”, he said in October.

Trump has, however, kept making his claims that North Carolina’s disaster response was at best insufficient, even making a reference in his inaugural speech on Monday.

On Friday, he once again launched into criticisms of both FEMA and Biden, blaming them both for the slow pace of recovery.

“  FEMA is been a very big disappointment. And they are incredibly expensive. It’s very bureaucratic. And it’s very slow”, Trump said at one point.

At another, he lashed out at his Democratic predecessor: “Biden did a bad job. Some residents don’t have hot water, drinking water or anything else. Many of them don’t have quarters. They don’t have anything”.

Later in the day, he made fun of his trip to southern California, where wildfires continue to engulf neighborhoods in and around Los Angeles in the midst of unseasonably dry weather.

He emphasized that he would put conditions, such as requiring that California implement a voter-identification law, before granting disaster aid to the Democratic-led state.

Trump has claimed that these measures are necessary to stop voter fraud, making them his preferred point of contention, but critics contend that they could make it harder for US citizens to obtain ID cards.

Source: Aljazeera