The president of the United States, Donald Trump, said Friday that he would like to get rid of the main federal agency that responds to natural disasters during a visit to North Carolina areas that were devastated by Hurricane Helene in September.
Trump, on his first trip since he claimed the presidency on Monday, accused the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) of emergency relief efforts in North Carolina. He promised to sign an executive order to begin the fundamental review process or eliminate the agency.
“FEMA has turned out to be a disaster,” he said during a tour of a neighborhood destroyed by Helene, where trees were demolished and houses had climbed windows. “I think we recommend that Fema leaves.”
Fema brings emergency personnel, supplies and equipment to help areas to start recovering from natural disasters, and agency’s financing has shot in recent years as extreme climatic events increase the demand for their services.
The agency, which has 10 regional offices and employs more than 20,000 people throughout the country, was directed during the last four years by the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden.
During an informative session on recovery efforts, Republican Trump promised to quickly help North Carolina to “get the help” to rebuild. He said he would prefer that states receive federal money to handle disasters themselves instead of trusting FEMA to do the job.
Trump complained that Biden did not do enough to help west of North Carolina to recover from the hurricane, an accusation that the Biden administration rejected as misinformation.
Trump also abruptly criticized the response of democratic officials to forest fires in Los Angeles who have caused a generalized destruction this month. His republican colleagues in Congress have threatened to retain disaster help for the region.
Trump had to visit Los Angeles later in the day, while three mass fires still threaten that region.
Newsom to greet Trump in Los Angeles
In an interview with Fox News On Wednesday, Trump threatened to retain Help to California and repeated a false statement that the state governor, Gavin Newsom and other officials have refused to provide water from the northern part of the state to fight fires.
“I don’t think we should give California anything until they drop the water,” Trump said. He has falsely affirmed that Newsom, a Democrat, prioritized the preservation of fish in danger of extinction on public safety. Newsom has said that there is no connection between the fish and the fire.
The governor told reporters on Thursday that he planned to be present at Los Angeles International Airport to greet Trump. “I hope to be there in the asphalt to thank the president and welcome him,” said Newsom.
Trump accused Newsom and the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, who was out of the country when the fires exploded, of “serious incompetence”, pointing out what he called a lack of ineffective preparation and political or harmful policies of water management.
Water scarcity caused some hydrants to dry in Pacific Ricas, hindering the early response. When the fires exploded, one of the deposits that could have supplied more water to the area was empty for a year. The authorities have promised an investigation into why it was dry.
Mayor Bass and firefighters have said that the hydrants were not designed to deal with such a massive disaster and emphasized the unprecedented nature of the fires.
Trump has focused some of his criticisms on the complicated California policies to share the abundant water supply found in the northern part of the state with the dry south. The detour results in the discharge of a little water in the ocean, something that Trump has represented as an insensitive waste.
Newsom has ruled out those attacks as without foundation, and experts have said that amusements, in part, designed to protect agricultural interests, have played little or no role in the difficulties found in the fight against fires.
Since the fires broke out on January 7, they have killed 28 people and damaged or destroyed almost 16,000 structures, authorities say. Much of South California remains under a Flag Warning Network for extreme fire risk due to strong dry winds.
