Trump targets FEMA while visiting disaster zones in North Carolina, California
LOS ANGELES - President Donald Trump hit the road for the first time since his second inauguration earlier this week, visiting hurricane victims in North Carolina and then heading west to California to tour the devastation left behind by wildfires around Los Angeles.
Trump criticized the federal response – and then-President Biden – after both disasters, drawing rebukes from Democrats who claimed he was unnecessarily politicizing the victims’ suffering. The president also suggested he'd be open to reducing FEMA's role or eliminating it entirely.
"FEMA has really let us down, let the country down," Trump said after landing in North Carolina. "And I don't know if that's Biden's fault or whose fault it is, but we're going to take over. We're going to do a good job."
US President Donald Trump, with first lady Melania Trump (L), speaks at a Hurricane Helene recovery briefing in a hangar at the Asheville Regional Airport in Fletcher, North Carolina, on January 24, 2025. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
North Carolina: Hurricane Helene
The backstory:
Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida's Big Bend region Sept. 26, 2024. Moving rapidly, the storm pushed unusually far inland across Georgia and the Southern Appalachians.
Helene brought unprecedented rainfall to the region, which led to catastrophic flooding and widespread destruction, particularly in the mountains of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. The storm also caused extensive power outages that lasted for weeks and even months.
FOX Weather independently confirmed the death toll from Helene at 230 across seven states, with 102 fatalities confirmed in North Carolina alone.
File; Candidate Donald Trump speaks to the media in Swannanoa, North Carolina, on October 21, 2024, after observing cleanup efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which devastated the region. (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Many Helene victims felt forgotten, especially after Hurricane Milton pummeled Florida and wildfires torched Los Angeles and false rumors about the federal disaster response spread online, sometimes amplified by Trump during the presidential campaign.
What they're saying:
"The Democrats don't care about North Carolina. What they've done with FEMA is so bad. FEMA is a whole [other] discussion, because all it does is complicate everything," Trump said Wednesday in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity.
The other side:
Michael Coen, who served as chief of staff at FEMA during the Biden administration, said Trump was "misinformed" about an agency that provides critical help to states when they're overwhelmed by catastrophe.
Southern California: Wildfires
The backstory:
Several large wind-whipped wildfires have burned across sections of Southern California this month in an unusually early start to fire season. At least 27 people have died and countless homes, businesses and schools have been destroyed.
Most of the damage came from the two largest fires – the Palisades Fire in Pacific Palisades and the Eaton Fire in Altadena – which officials compared to "fire hurricanes" because of the powerful Santa Ana winds that made firefighting efforts nearly impossible.
The president and first lady Melania Trump were greeted at LAX by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The two men shook hands and hugged once on the tarmac.
"We want to get it fixed, we want to get the problem fixed and there will be some ways. It's like you got hit by a bomb," Trump said to Newsom and reporters.
Newsom then thanked the president for visiting L.A.
"We're going to need your support. We're going to need your help," Newsom told Trump. "You were there for us during COVID. I don't forget that, and I have all the expectations we’re going to be able to work together."
Newsom has praised Trump before when looking for help from the federal government. In the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, he called Trump "thoughtful" and "collaborative."
Trump’s brief but friendly interaction with Newsom belied the confrontational stance he signaled toward California earlier in the day.
Trump said Los Angeles residents who lost their homes should be able to get back onto their properties immediately to clear them, adding several told him it will be months before they can rebuild.
Mayor Karen Bass said residents should be able to return home within the week, but keeping people safe from hazardous materials is a top priority. She said the city was easing the process to get permits, but she was repeatedly interrupted by Trump as she tried to explain the city's efforts. He downplayed the concerns about toxins, saying: "What's hazardous waste? We're going to have to define that."
Dig deeper:
The response was complicated by a lack of water that local officials say was due to the unprecedented and overwhelming need in the face of such massive blazes, exacerbated by the challenging terrain.
Trump has falsely insisted that California’s water policies, specifically fish conservation efforts in the northern part of the state, contributed to hydrants running dry in the Los Angeles area.
What they're saying:
"I don’t think we should give California anything until they let the water run down," Trump said in an interview with Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity on Wednesday.
The other side:
Gov. Gavin Newsom has flatly rejected the president’s claims about the water. "Broadly speaking, there is no water shortage in Southern California right now, despite Trump's claims that he would open some imaginary spigot," Newsom's office said earlier this month.
File: California Governor Gavin Newsom, center, surveys damage in Pacific Palisades during the Palisades Fire on Wednesday, January 8, 2025, in Pacific Palisades, CA. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)
RELATED: Trump threatens to withhold federal aid for Los Angeles over state's water policies – what to know
FEMA and the future
Big picture view:
The trip is giving President Trump a chance to vent about the federal government, a popular target of his through the years. After arriving in North Carolina, the president said he wanted to look "at the whole concept" of FEMA.
"I'll also be signing an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA, or maybe getting rid of FEMA," Trump said. "I think, frankly, FEMA is not good. I think when you have a problem like this, I think you want to go, whether it's a Democrat or Republican governor, you want to use your state to fix it and not waste time calling FEMA.
"And then FEMA gets here and they don't know the area. They've never been to the area, and they want to give you rules that you've never heard about. They want to bring people that aren't as good as the people you already have. And FEMA has turned out to be a disaster."
RELATED: What is FEMA? The Federal Emergency Management Agency explained
The president’s trip could also prompt some uncomfortable conversations about climate change, which Trump has played down and denied. Both Hurricane Helene and the Los Angeles wildfires were exacerbated by global warming.
In Helene’s case, a study by international climate scientists at World Weather Attribution found that climate change boosted the storm’s rainfall by 10%. In California, the state suffered a record dry fall and winter — its traditional wet season — which made the area around Los Angeles more vulnerable to blazes.
RELATED: Here's how much stronger climate change has made hurricanes
What's next:
Trump plans to hold a Saturday rally in Las Vegas. Advisers said he will offer details on keeping a campaign promise to exclude tips from federal taxes.
The Source: Information from this story came from President Trump's press conference, FOX 11 Los Angeles, FOX Weather coverage of the disasters, a FOX News interview with the president, and previous FOX Television Stations reporting. Associated Press reporters Will Weissert and Chris Megerian contributed.