Trump demands California voter ID law for emergency fire and threatens FEMA upon arrival in North Carolina

Chairman Donald Trump Friday said he would demand it California overhaul its election laws and reverse environmental policies as a condition of any federal funds to help the state recover from forest fires that has devastated the Los Angeles area in recent weeks.

He also claimed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had mishandled efforts to help North Carolinians recover from Hurricane Helene and suggested that the White House and Republican National Committee would somehow take over the distribution of any relief funds authorized by Congress. Trump took aim at FEMA when he arrived in Asheville, North Carolina, to see hurricane damage before traveling to California to see the devastation caused by wildfires.

Speaking to reporters just after stepping off Air Force One, Trump said FEMAwhich is part of the Department of Homeland Security, “has really failed us,” though it was unclear what exactly he accused the agency of doing or not doing.

“I don’t know if it’s Biden’s fault or whose fault it is, but we’re going to take over and we’re going to do a good job and we’re going to assign (Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley) who’s great , frankly, and the governor and everybody else that’s going to work,” he said. “We’re going to provide the money, the supply, a lot of the money. Maybe you need to guess something. You put in a little like maybe 25 percent or whatever, but we get it done as fast as we can. And we will take care of the people North Carolina.”

Trump also said FEMA would not be involved in further relief efforts, suggesting instead that Whatley, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein (D) and a trio of Republican House members would work directly with the White House because the agency “does not has done the job.”

“And we’re looking at the whole concept of FEMA. I honestly like the concept, when North Carolina gets hit, the governor takes care of it. When Florida gets hit, the governor takes care of it, which means the state takes care of it ,” he said, adding a short time later that the way FEMA sends “a large group of people” into a disaster area “to immediately solve a problem” was “something that never worked for me.”

As he continued, Trump was asked about the possibility of blocking wildfire relief funding for Los Angeles because of city policies that prevent local police from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement efforts.

He responded that he wants to see “two things” in California before he would support federal disaster relief funding for the Golden State.

“I want to see two things in Los Angeles: Voter ID so people have a chance to vote. And I want to see the water released and come down in Los Angeles and across the state. Those are the two things. After that, I will be the greatest president that California has ever seen,” he said.

A short time later, during a briefing with local officials, the president reiterated his demand that California change its election laws.

“In California, I have a condition — we want them to have voter ID so people have a vote. Right now, the people don’t have a vote because you don’t know who’s voting. It’s very corrupt,” he said. .

The president has run for office three times and has never won a majority of the popular vote in California. Each time, he has made false claims that his losses have been tainted by fraud and by non-citizens who voted for his Democratic opponents.

Trump’s boast of being willing to withhold disaster aid for political reasons is in line with how he handled large-scale disasters in his first term.

He often suggested that he would not provide sufficient aid to states with Democratic governors if those governors were not “friendly” to him, and in some cases he failed to sign disaster declarations when requested by Democratic officials.

In addition, Trump claimed that he would soon issue an executive order to “fundamentally reform and overhaul FEMA or get rid of FEMA.”

Before FEMA became part of the Department of Homeland Security in 2003, it was an independent agency created by executive order during the Carter administration in 1979.

In 1988, Congress established the agency in statute and gave it expanded authority via the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, and in 2002 the Homeland Security Act made FEMA part of the Department of Homeland Security.

As such, it cannot be dissolved or removed by proclamation.