‘Setting up us for disaster’: Alarm at Trump Attack at Federal Disaster Agency | Donald Trump

D.Onald Trump has suggested pairing back or even settling the federal reaction to major disasters, a step that would cut off help that has largely helped support Republican prone states voting for him in last year’s US presidential election.

Trump said that Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had “not done their job in the last four years” and that there would be “a big discussion very soon because I would rather see the states take care of their own problems” .

In an interview With Fox Newsthe US president said of FEMA that “all it does is complicate everything” and that even states that resounding him, such as Oklahoma, should primarily be left to handle the wake of larger storms, floods and fires.

“I love Oklahoma, but you know what? If they are hit by a tornado or something, let Oklahoma fix it, ”Trump said. “And then the federal government can help them with the money. FEMA gets in the way of everything. “

Moving the burden of disaster relief to the states, an idea outlined by the right-wing project 2025 manifesto before the election, suggests Republican states that are hardest, suggests federal consumption figures.

Since 2015, what voted for Trump last year has received $ 31 billion. In the assistance of FEMA, with stormy Florida, Texas and Louisiana at the forefront compared to just $ 7 billion. For states that voted democratically. US territories have been able to get $ 27 billion. In FEMA financing, a figure increased by the catastrophic hurricane Maria that hit Puerto Rico in 2017.

FEMA – which now has Cameron Hamilton, a former Navy Sail without experience coordinating major disaster action, such as its temporary head – was established in 1979 because states were unable to fully respond to extreme weather effects without federal help. As accidents have begun to deteriorate due to the climate crisis, the requirements for FEMA have become even more intense.

“This would have huge consequences for many red states; It’s hard to find the words for how bad it would be, ”said Samantha Montano, a disaster -Response expert at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, about Trump’s comments.

“Florida and Texas have a high risk, but poor red states like Mississippi and Alabama would be even worse because they have less money to deduct to compensate for a loss in federal funding.

“What (Trump) says is completely incoherent and illogical. He says North Carolina needs more help, but this would work to bankrupt North Carolina.

“The Trump administration is in a difficult place because their ideology is spending less money, but disasters cost a lot of money. A lot of his followers and Americans more broadly expect the federal government to write a check after a disaster happens so they can rebuild their lives. “

Trump visits North Carolina and then California on Friday and has been sharply critical of the response of disasters in both states. In September, Hurricane Helene became the deadliest storm to hit the mainland of us since Katrina in 2005, an event followed by a whirl of baseless conspiracy theories driven by Trump accusing Joe Biden of not responding in spite of state governors , including Republicans, praises federal aid efforts.

Recently, Ildebrande has sweat parts of Los Angeles in what may be the most expensive outburst of fire in California’s history. Trump has attacked the state’s democratic leadership for not containing fires, with his Republican allies in Congress, suggesting that help with California is bound to other matters.

“I think he is poorly informed in terms of how emergency management works because US states have emergency programs, like territories like Puerto Rico,” said Michael Coen, who served as Fema’s chief of staff under Biden, about Trump. Fema steps in when the capacity of these programs is exceeded, he said.

Trump said California should not access resources until local officials “let water flow” from the northern part of the state and repeated a claim he made on the campaign track. But Los Angeles does not actually depend on water from northern California, Coen noted. “It just shows his ignorance of what the challenges are with fires in California,” he said.

While Trump has mistakenly blamed immigrants and even the protection of a small fish for aggravating these disasters, scientists have pointed to a climate crisis that reinforces fires, storms and other extreme weather events.

Last year there were 27 disasters that cost $ 1 billion.With the installation of life and property that causes more insurance companies to escape from states like Florida.

However, Trump has called climate change “a giant hoax” and in his first week back in the White House has launched a barrier of executive orders to throw more American soil and waters for oil and gas drilling, block new wind turbines, stymie electric cars and pull USA AGAIN from the Paris Climate Agreement.

In addition to flowing the idea of ​​scaling back Fema, Trump has also abolished the requirements that were first introduced by Barack Obama to set hard new standards for federally funded projects such as hospitals, housing and highways to ensure that they can handle extreme better Floods and sea level rise.

“While red states take the most benefit of FEMA, I would say that we all take advantage of FEMA, no matter where we are,” Montano said. “For the past 72 hours, America has become much more uncertain about the risk we are facing. To promise to aggravate the climate crisis, paired with dismantling FEMA, is to set us up for disaster. “