https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/jan/22/trump-suggests-shuttering-fema-leting-states-handl/?
By Mallory Wilson – The Washington Times – Updated: 11:01 p.m. on Wednesday, January 22, 2025
President Trump suggested that the Federal Emergency Management Agency could be shut down, allowing states to handle their own disasters.
Mr. Trump sat down for his first Oval Office interview of his second administration with Fox News’s Sean Hannity Wednesday night where they discussed a wide range of topics.
“FEMA is a whole other discussion because all it does is complicate everything,” Mr. Trump said. “FEMA has not done their job for the last four years.”
“You know, I had FEMA working really well,” he said. “We had hurricanes in Florida. We had Alabama tornadoes. But unless you have certain types of leadership, it really gets in the way.
He said the agency “is going to be a whole big discussion very shortly because I’d rather see the states take care of their own problems.”
He railed against how the agency handled the devastating hurricanes that hit North Carolina in late September and the beginning of October.
He said the Democrats “don’t care” about helping North Carolina recover from the hurricanes.
“What they’ve done with FEMA is so bad,” he said
Republicans railed against the Biden administration and FEMA’s handling of the two hurricanes, saying that more government money was spent on illegal immigrants than those who were hit by the hurricanes.
“I love Oklahoma,” he said. “But you know what? If they get hit with a tornado or something, let Oklahoma fix it.”
“You don’t need — and then the federal government can help them out with the money.”
Mr. Trump is heading to North Carolina and California to survey the damage from the hurricanes and wildfires.