LOS ANGELES – President Donald Trump hit the highway for the primary time since his second inauguration earlier this week, visiting hurricane victims in North Carolina after which heading west to California to tour the devastation left behind by wildfires round Los Angeles.
Trump criticized the federal response – and then-President Biden – after each disasters, drawing rebukes from Democrats who claimed he was unnecessarily politicizing the victims’ struggling. The president additionally instructed he’d be open to decreasing FEMA’s function or eliminating it fully.
“FEMA has actually allow us to down, let the nation down,” Trump mentioned after touchdown in North Carolina. “And I do not know if that is Biden’s fault or whose fault it’s, however we will take over. We will do a very good job.”
US President Donald Trump, with first girl Melania Trump (L), speaks at a Hurricane Helene restoration briefing in a hangar on the Asheville Regional Airport in Fletcher, North Carolina, on January 24, 2025. (Photograph by MANDEL NGAN/AFP through Getty Photos)
North Carolina: Hurricane Helene
The backstory:
Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida’s Huge Bend area Sept. 26, 2024. Transferring quickly, the storm pushed unusually far inland throughout Georgia and the Southern Appalachians.
Helene introduced unprecedented rainfall to the area, which led to catastrophic flooding and widespread destruction, significantly within the mountains of western North Carolina and japanese Tennessee. The storm additionally prompted in depth energy outages that lasted for weeks and even months.
FOX Climate independently confirmed the dying toll from Helene at 230 throughout 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 within the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which devastated the area. (Photograph by JIM WATSON/AFP through Getty Photos)
Many Helene victims felt forgotten, particularly after Hurricane Milton pummeled Florida and wildfires torched Los Angeles and false rumors concerning the federal catastrophe response unfold on-line, typically amplified by Trump in the course of the presidential marketing campaign.
What they’re saying:
“The Democrats do not care about North Carolina. What they’ve completed with FEMA is so unhealthy. FEMA is a complete [other] dialogue, as a result of all it does is complicate every thing,” Trump mentioned Wednesday in an interview with Fox Information’ Sean Hannity.
President Trump speaks in Ashville NC on Helene
President trump offered some remarks in North Carolina earlier than touring Helene damages throughout the state.
The opposite facet:
Michael Coen, who served as chief of employees at FEMA in the course of the Biden administration, mentioned Trump was “misinformed” about an company that gives vital assist to states after they’re overwhelmed by disaster.
Southern California: Wildfires
The backstory:
A number of giant wind-whipped wildfires have burned throughout sections of Southern California this month in an unusually early begin to fireplace season. A minimum of 27 individuals have died and numerous properties, companies and faculties have been destroyed.
A lot of the injury got here from the 2 largest fires – the Palisades Hearth in Pacific Palisades and the Eaton Hearth in Altadena – which officers in comparison with “fireplace hurricanes” due to the highly effective Santa Ana winds that made firefighting efforts almost inconceivable.
Dig deeper:
The response was difficult by an absence of water that native officers say was as a result of unprecedented and overwhelming want within the face of such large blazes, exacerbated by the difficult terrain.
Trump has falsely insisted that California’s water insurance policies, particularly fish conservation efforts within the northern a part of the state, contributed to hydrants working dry within the Los Angeles space.
What they’re saying:
“I don’t assume we should always give California something till they let the water run down,” Trump mentioned in an interview with Fox Information Channel’s Sean Hannity on Wednesday.
The opposite facet:
Gov. Gavin Newsom has flatly rejected the president’s claims concerning the water. “Broadly talking, there isn’t a water scarcity in Southern California proper now, regardless of Trump’s claims that he would open some imaginary spigot,” Newsom’s workplace mentioned earlier this month.
File: California Governor Gavin Newsom, middle, surveys injury in Pacific Palisades in the course of the Palisades Hearth on Wednesday, January 8, 2025, in Pacific Palisades, CA. (Photograph by Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register through Getty Photos)
FEMA and the long run
Huge image view:
The journey is giving President Trump an opportunity to vent concerning the federal authorities, a well-liked goal of his by way of the years. After arriving in North Carolina, the president mentioned he needed to look “on the entire idea” of FEMA.
“I will even be signing an government order to start the method of essentially reforming and overhauling FEMA, or possibly eliminating FEMA,” Trump mentioned. “I believe, frankly, FEMA shouldn’t be good. I believe when you’ve got an issue like this, I believe you need to go, whether or not it is a Democrat or Republican governor, you need to use your state to repair it and never waste time calling FEMA.
“After which FEMA will get right here and they do not know the realm. They’ve by no means been to the realm, and so they need to offer you guidelines that you’ve got by no means heard about. They need to convey individuals that are not pretty much as good because the individuals you have already got. And FEMA has turned out to be a catastrophe.”
Trump says states ought to deal with emergency response
President Donald Trump mentioned he plans to overtake the Federal Emergency Administration Company (FEMA) as North Carolina continues to be recovering from Hurricane Helene greater than 120 days after the storm struck the state.
The president’s journey might additionally immediate some uncomfortable conversations about local weather change, which Trump has performed down and denied. Each Hurricane Helene and the Los Angeles wildfires had been exacerbated by world warming.
In Helene’s case, a examine by worldwide local weather scientists at World Climate Attribution discovered that local weather change boosted the storm’s rainfall by 10%. In California, the state suffered a document dry fall and winter — its conventional moist season — which made the realm round Los Angeles extra susceptible to blazes.
RELATED: Here is how a lot stronger local weather change has made hurricanes
What’s subsequent:
Trump plans to carry a Saturday rally in Las Vegas. Advisers mentioned he’ll provide particulars on conserving a marketing campaign promise to exclude ideas from federal taxes.
The Supply: Data from this story got here from President Trump’s press convention, FOX 11 Los Angeles, FOX Climate protection of the disasters, a FOX Information interview with the president, and former FOX Tv Stations reporting. Related Press reporters Will Weissert and Chris Megerian contributed.
