Trump Floats States, Not FEMA, Handle Emergency Response

US President Donald Trump
Photographer: Aaron Schwartz/Sipa/Bloomberg

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By Skylar Woodhouse and Hadriana Lowenkron

January 23, 2025 at 3:34 AM UTC

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President Donald Trump proposed turning disaster assistance over to individual states to distribute rather than having the Federal Emergency Management Agency respond, ahead of a trip to survey flood damage in North Carolina and wildfires in California.

“All it does is complicate everything,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday night. “FEMA has not done their job for the last four years.”