By Nandita Bose and Steve Holland
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday floated shuttering the Federal Emergency Management Agency during a trip to disaster areas in North Carolina and California, where he pledged government support and sparred with Democratic officials.
Fresh from assuming office on Monday, Trump’s visit showcased a desire to show up early in the two states, hit by a hurricane and massive wildfires, respectively. But he punctured the visits with criticism of FEMA, vowing to sign an executive order to overhaul or eliminate the main federal agency that responds to natural disasters.
“FEMA has turned out to be a disaster,” he said during a tour of a North Carolina neighborhood destroyed by September’s Hurricane Helene. “I think we recommend that FEMA go away.”
Trump accused FEMA of bungling emergency relief efforts there and said he preferred that states be given federal money to handle disasters themselves.
The president has also criticized California’s response to the Los Angeles fires, which have caused widespread destruction, but he pledged to work with Governor Gavin Newsom and offered help to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass while visiting the state.
“We’re looking to get something completed. And the way you get it completed is to work together to govern the state, and we’re going to get it completed. They’re going to need a lot of federal help,” Trump told reporters after Newsom met him on the tarmac when Air Force One landed later in Los Angeles.
Three massive blazes still threaten the region.
Newsom, a Democrat who has had a tense relationship with the Republican leader, told Trump that California would need his support.
Trump has accused Newsom and Bass of “gross incompetence” and Republican colleagues in Congress have threatened to withhold disaster aid.
During a meeting with California officials, Trump sparred with Bass and another Democratic lawmaker, pressing the mayor to use her emergency powers, let people get back to their properties quickly, and allow them to remove debris on their own. Bass emphasized the importance of safety and the lawmaker, Representative Brad Sherman, praised FEMA’s work.
Trump asked Richard Grenell, a former ambassador to Germany, to represent him in the response to the California fires.
WATER FIGHT, FEMA SHUTDOWN?
Trump has previously threatened to withhold aid to California and repeated in North Carolina a false claim that Newsom and other officials refused to provide water from the northern part of the state to fight the fires.
Water shortages caused some hydrants to run dry in affluent Pacific Palisades, hindering the early response. When the fires broke out, one of the reservoirs that could have supplied more water to the area had been empty for a year. Officials have promised an investigation into why it was dry.
Bass and fire officials have said the hydrants were not designed to deal with such a massive disaster, and stressed the unprecedented nature of the fires.
Meanwhile, experts doubt that Trump alone can shut down FEMA.
Rob Verchick, a former Obama administration official at the Environmental Protection Agency and now a professor at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, said eliminating FEMA most likely requires Congressional action.
He said FEMA was created by former President Jimmy Carter by executive order but has been assigned roles and funding by Congress for the country’s emergency response programs.
FEMA brings in emergency personnel, supplies and equipment to help areas begin to recover from natural disasters. Funding for the agency has soared in recent years as extreme weather events have increased the demand for its services.
The agency has 10 regional offices and employs more than 20,000 people across the country.
FEMA was a target of Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for Trump’s second term prepared by his allies that the president distanced himself from during the election. The plan called for dismantling the Department of Homeland Security and relocating FEMA to the Department of Interior or the Department of Transportation.
In addition, it suggested changing the formula that the agency uses to determine when federal disaster assistance is warranted, shifting the costs of preventing and responding to disasters to states.
Trump complained that his predecessor Joe Biden did not do enough to help western North Carolina recover from Helene, an accusation the Biden administration rejected as misinformation.
In an X post on Friday, Democratic U.S. Representative Deborah Ross of North Carolina said FEMA had been a crucial partner in the state’s recovery from the hurricane.
“I appreciate President Trump’s concern about Western NC, but eliminating FEMA would be a disaster for our state,” she said.
The trip to North Carolina and California culminates a week during which Trump moved with stunning speed to meet campaign promises on illegal immigration, the size of the federal workforce, energy and the environment, gender and diversity policies, and pardons for supporters jailed for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose, Steve Holland and Jeff Mason; Additional reporting by Jarrett Renshaw, Andrea Shalal, Tom Hals, Andy Sullivan and Susan Heavey; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Alistair Bell, Rosalba O’Brien and Tom Hogue)
