Last week, I was in North Carolina, visiting areas that were hit hard by Hurricane Helene. While there, President Trump made a bold statement—he suggested that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) should be “gotten rid of” and that the government should pay states directly instead.
“FEMA has turned out to be a disaster,” he said. “I think we’re going to recommend that FEMA go away and we pay directly – we pay a percentage to the state.”
Now, that’s a pretty big move, especially when we’re still dealing with wildfires in California and winter storms on the horizon. People in places like the Appalachian Mountains are still trying to recover from last year’s catastrophic storm. Towns are rebuilding, and instead of improving disaster response, scrapping FEMA could make things even worse.
This isn’t just a random idea—it’s part of a larger plan laid out in something called Project 2025. It’s been in the works for a while, and it feeds into some of the misinformation floating around about FEMA’s role in our country’s disaster relief efforts. And when you think about the U.S. pulling out of the Paris Agreement on climate change, it just seems like we’re setting ourselves up for even worse natural disasters. Cutting FEMA? It’s simply the wrong move.
FEMA: A Lifeline in Crisis
Now, I’ve seen firsthand the devastation that storms like Hurricane Helene cause. Helene led to 104 deaths in North Carolina and left a $60 billion damage trail. So far, FEMA has approved $320 million to help more than 146,000 households. While no agency is perfect, FEMA’s team is usually the first on the ground after a disaster. A reliable disaster response team is something we need.
Unfortunately, misinformation has been circulating about FEMA since Helene made landfall last September. On social media, I saw wild claims—everything from AI-generated images of rescues to false accusations that FEMA was redirecting funds to help undocumented immigrants. In fact, Trump repeated this lie in the weeks after the storm. At one point, FEMA even had to pause some of its work due to reports of militias threatening their staff.
The Push to Overhaul FEMA: A Political Strategy
This push to completely overhaul FEMA isn’t a new idea. It’s part of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, something Republicans have been thinking about for years. It’s worth noting that states like Texas, Louisiana, and Florida—three red states—have received billions in FEMA assistance over the past few years. According to Axios, these states received over $7 billion in disaster relief payments from FEMA since 2015.
Trump has also proposed dismantling other government agencies, including the Department of Education. While he announced that Michael Whatley, Chair of the Republican National Committee, would help with North Carolina’s recovery, it raises a question: If FEMA isn’t “local enough,” why add another federal bureaucrat to the mix?
Seems like adding more oversight is the preferred solution.
The Reality: States Need FEMA
Here’s the thing: Trump believes everything should be handled by the states, but that doesn’t always work in reality. States don’t have the resources or infrastructure to handle disaster relief on their own. They need the federal government to step in during times of crisis. That’s why FEMA exists in the first place—to fill in the gaps and offer support when things get overwhelming.
As president, it’s crucial to respect the systems we’ve put in place to protect and serve the people. Cutting FEMA would be like dismantling the very foundation of disaster relief.
But, as we all know, this is a president who seems more focused on tearing down the systems that have helped our country, rather than strengthening them.
