President Trump told hurricane survivors in North Carolina Friday that he may be “getting rid of FEMA” — while saying he would end the “betrayal and neglect” of former President Joe Biden’s administration.
Trump, 78, appeared alongside still-homeless survivors of Hurricane Helene four months after the storm and repeatedly slammed the performance of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“FEMA was not on the ball. And we’re going to turn it all around,” Trump told reporters on the Asheville tarmac soon after his first trip aboard Air Force One as the 47th president.
President Trump and first lady Melania arriving at a Hurricane Helene recovery briefing in a hangar at the Asheville Regional Airport in Fletcher, North Carolina. AFP via Getty ImagesThe president then doubled and tripled down, telling a roundtable of federal and local officials that he will be “signing an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA — or maybe getting rid of FEMA. I think, frankly, that FEMA’s not good.”
Trump said that he favors providing federal funds directly to state governments in response to disasters — an idea he floated earlier this week that received a surprisingly positive reception from liberal outlets such as the New York Times.
“Earlier this month, the Biden administration kicked 2,000 displaced North Carolinians out of contemporary housing into freezing 20 degree weather,” Trump told assembled survivors in the severely damaged town of Swannanoa.
“I don’t know how they did that one because it was cold — even while your government provided shelter and housing for illegal aliens from all over the world. But under the Trump administration, the days of betrayal and neglect are over.”
Trump laid some of the blame for FEMA’s ills at his predecessor’s feet, saying, “I guess Biden was thinking about other things, wasn’t he?”
One survivor, a grandfather who said his family home was submerged by flooding, told the president “we’re thankful to be alive” but that he was “staying in a camper” donated by a nonprofit group and “if you all notice, I’m a big guy, I don’t sleep in campers very well.”
“It’s tough. I think we’re at a point in Asheville where people just forgot about Asheville and it’s sad, everything has stopped,” the man told Trump.
President Trump suggested his administration may be “getting rid of FEMA” during the briefing. AFP via Getty ImagesTrump has appointed Michael Whatley, chairman of the Republican National Committee, to lead federal recovery efforts in his home state from Helene, which killed more than 230 people and unleashed devastating flooding in late September.
The president said that he will be asking Congress to approve funds and that the federal government would be “surging housing solutions to the state.”
That relief, Trump vowed, would “go beyond mere temporary hotel stays that ended up being very short term because we wouldn’t do it any longer, which is ridiculous.”
“We’ll marshal all available resources to bring back potable water and make your water and infrastructure dramatically more reliable, very quickly. And today, I’ll also be signing an executive order slashing all red tape and bureaucratic barriers and permits to ensure the rapid reconstruction of the roads here in western North Carolina.
“We’re gonna go through a permitting process that’s called, ‘No permitting. Just get it done.’ That’s the way they built them many years ago. I guarantee that,” Trump said.
“But we will get them back very quickly, and we’ll begin the work of fundamentally changing, terminating or overhauling FEMA. FEMA has been a disaster, no matter where they are.”
The president also said that any newly appropriated funds for the region would “go through us, rather than going through FEMA.”
“I think we’re going to recommend that FEMA go away, and we pay directly. We pay a percentage to the state. But the state should fix this,” Trump said.
“FEMA has been a very big disappointment. They cost a tremendous amount of money. It’s very bureaucratic and it’s very slow,” he added, joking: “Other than that, we’re very happy with them.”
