By Nandita Bose, for Reuters
US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump speak with officials as they tour a fire-affected area in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, on Friday (US time). Photo: AFP/ Mandel Ngan
- Trump criticizes US disaster response agency's handling of Hurricane Helene recovery
- Trump threatens to withhold aid over California water
- California Governor Newsom to greet Trump at Los Angeles airport
US President Donald Trump says he plans to sign an executive order to overhaul or eliminate the main federal agency that responds to natural disasters, during a visit to storm-hit areas of North Carolina.
Trump made the statements on Friday, during his first trip since reclaiming the presidency at the beginning of the week, accusing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) of bungling emergency relief efforts in North Carolina, which was devastated by flooding from Hurricane Helene in September.
He said his executive order would begin the process of fundamentally overhauling or eliminating the agency.
"FEMA has turned out to be a disaster," he said during a tour of a neighbourhood destroyed by Helene, where trees were downed and homes had boarded-up windows. "I think we recommend that FEMA go away."
FEMA brings in emergency personnel, supplies and equipment to help areas begin to recover from natural disasters, and funding for the agency has soared in recent years as extreme weather events increase the demand for its services.
The agency, which has 10 regional offices and employs more than 20,000 people across the country, was run for the last four years by Democratic President Joe Biden's administration.
During a briefing about recovery efforts, the Republican Trump promised to speedily help North Carolina "get the help you need" to rebuild.
He said he would prefer that states be given federal money to handle disasters themselves rather than rely on FEMA to do the job.
FEMA was a target of Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for Trump's second term prepared by the president's allies that the president distanced himself from during the election. The plan called for dismantling the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) 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.
Democrats voiced support for FEMA.
Democratic US Representative Deborah Ross of North Carolina, in an X post on Friday, said FEMA has been a crucial partner.
"I appreciate President Trump's concern about Western NC, but eliminating FEMA would be a disaster for our state," she said.
Trump complained that Biden did not do enough to help western North Carolina recover from the hurricane, an accusation the Biden administration rejected as misinformation.
Trump also sharply criticised Democratic officials' response to wildfires in Los Angeles that have caused widespread destruction this month. His Republican colleagues in Congress have threatened to withhold disaster aid for the region.
Trump was due to visit Los Angeles later in the day while three massive blazes still threaten that region.
Newsom to greet Trump in Los Angeles
In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Trump threatened to withhold aid to California and repeated a false claim that the state's governor, Gavin Newsom, and other officials have refused to provide water from the northern part of the state to fight the fires.
"I don't think we should give California anything until they let the water flow down," Trump said.
He has falsely claimed that Newsom, a Democrat, prioritised the preservation of endangered fish over public safety. Newsom has said there is no connection between the fish and the fire.
The governor told reporters on Thursday that he planned to be on hand at Los Angeles International Airport to greet Trump.
Trump has accused Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass - who was out of the country when the fires broke out - of "gross incompetence," pointing to what he called a lack of preparation and ineffective or harmful water management policies.
Water shortages caused some hydrants to run dry in the affluent Pacific Palisades neighbourhood, hindering the early response. When the fires broke out, one of the reservoirs that could have supplied more water to the area was empty for a year. Officials have promised an investigation into why it was dry.
Mayor 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.
Trump has focused some of his criticism on California's complicated policies for sharing the plentiful water supply found in the northern part of the state with the parched south. The diversion results in the discharge of some water into the ocean, something Trump has depicted as a callous waste.
Newsom has dismissed those attacks as groundless, and experts have said that the diversions, in part designed to protect agricultural interests, have played little or no part in the difficulties encountered in fighting the fires.
Since the fires broke out on 7 January, they have killed 28 people and damaged or destroyed nearly 16,000 structures, authorities say.
Much of Southern California remains under a red-flag warning for extreme fire risk due to strong, dry winds.
- Reuters
