President Trump gets a briefing from officials in North Carolina about the recovery from Hurricane Helene in a hangar in Asheville, N.C. on Jan. 24, 2025.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
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Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
President Trump said on Friday that he plans to sign an executive order to “begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA — or maybe getting rid of FEMA.”
Speaking in Fletcher, N.C., Trump said he thinks the Federal Emergency Management Agency is too bureaucratic and slow. He suggested that state governments handle disasters within their states.
Precise details about the executive order were not immediately available, and Trump sidestepped questions from reporters about a timeline for his plans.
Trump made the comments while taking the first trip of his term on Friday, a trip that will take him to North Carolina and California to visit communities grappling with recovery from natural disasters.
Later on Friday, he will tour the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, and get a briefing on the wildfires that have ravaged Los Angeles.
Trump has said he feels that North Carolina was treated “unfairly” by the Biden administration after Hurricane Helene, which hit in the middle of the presidential campaign. He has said, without evidence, that Democrats withheld aid from Republican areas.
He has also indicated he sees aid for California as leverage for getting support from Democrats in Congress for some of his legislative priorities.
This is a continuing story that may be updated.
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