- President Donald Trump has threatened to scrap the emergency agency FEMA.
- The Federal Emergency Management Agency is tasked with responding to disasters across the US.
- Trump’s comments came during a national disaster recovery tour that saw him visit Los Angeles and North Carolina.
President Donald Trump threatened to scrap the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) during a visit to North Carolina on Friday.
During a press briefing, Trump said he would sign an executive order that would “begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA” or “maybe getting rid of” the agency entirely.
“FEMA has been a very big disappointment,” Trump said, adding that the agency — which employs more than 20,000 people across the US — was “very bureaucratic,” “very slow,” and “cost a tremendous amount of money.”
“Other than that we’re very happy with them,” Trump joked, reiterating that he believed states should be in charge of managing disasters.
After Hurricane Helene hit the US in late September, FEMA received both criticism and praise for its work.
Trump was speaking in Fletcher, North Carolina, as part of a national disaster recovery tour that later saw him visit areas affected by the Los Angeles wildfires.
During his trip to California, Trump met with local leaders and pledged to provide federal disaster relief for people affected by the fires, which ravaged the region earlier this month.
Trump received a warm welcome from California Gov. Gavin Newsom as he touched down in the state, despite a tense relationship between the pair in recent weeks.
They appeared to set aside their differences as Trump said he wanted to work together on the recovery.
Trump had previously threatened to withhold federal funds for recovery.
The LA fires could be some of the costliest in US history. AccuWeather has estimated the preliminary total damage and economic loss to be between $250 billion and $275 billion.
Early estimates suggested the potential economic losses of Hurricane Helene could be more than $50 billion.
