Topline
President Donald Trump on Wednesday criticized the Federal Emergency Management Agency and suggested he wants to have a discussion soon on its future, continuing his attack on the federal disaster response agency, which he and other GOP leaders have accused of being biased against Republicans.
President Donald Trump criticized FEMA and said the agency was “getting in the way of everything,” … [+]
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In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity from the Oval Office, Trump addressed the ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles and said: “FEMA is gonna be a whole big discussion very shortly.”
The president said he’d “rather see the states take care of their own problems.”
Trump attacked FEMA, saying the agency has not done its “job for the last four years,” and suggested without evidence that Democrats did not care about disasters in states like North Carolina—which has a Democratic governor—but are eager to get federal support to deal with the Los Angeles fires.
He then claimed FEMA was “working really well” under his previous administration, but added “unless you have certain types of leadership…FEMA is getting in the way of everything,” although he didn’t clarify what he meant by that.
As an example of how a disaster response would work without the agency, Trump said if a state like Oklahoma gets hit by a tornado, they should be allowed to “fix it” themselves and the federal government can “help them with the money.”
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What Did Trump Said About The La Fires?
Addressing the LA Fires, Trump said “a lot of money is going to be necessary for Los Angeles and a lot of people on the other side want that to happen,” referring to the Democrats. The president then reiterated his claim that California’s fish conservation efforts in the north of the state were to blame for the water shortages that have hampered the firefighting efforts. He added, “I don’t think we should give California anything until they let water flow down.”
Are Trump’s Claims About California’s Water Correct?
Trump’s comments echoed claims he made earlier this month on his Truth Social platform that the state’s governor Gavin Newsom had refused to approve a so-called “water restoration declaration,” that he claims would have allowed millions of gallons to flow into other parts of California. Trump claims this was done to “protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt.” Newsom’s office has dismissed Trump’s claims as “pure fiction,” noting that no such declaration exists. The president has previously argued that California should redirect more water from the north of the state to farmlands in Southern California and the Central Valley. However, there is no evidence that such a move would have help prevent the wildfires. Letitia Grenier, the director of Public Policy Institute of California’s Water Policy Center, told FactCheck.org earlier this month that the “transfer of water from Northern California to Southern California is not related to water availability to fight the fires in the Los Angeles area.” She noted that reservoirs in the Los Angeles area were mostly full and fire fighting efforts have mostly been hampered by logistical issues.
What About His Claims Regarding Fema?
Trump and his allies have publicly targeted FEMA officials since October last year as they fanned unsubstantiated claims about the agency’s response to Hurricane Helene. During his campaign, Trump claimed without evidence that the agency’s relief efforts were biased against GOP voters and money allocated to help them was being redirected to fund housing for undocumented immigrants. In response, FEMA published a page debunking rumors about its response, which stated among other things that: “No money is being diverted from disaster response needs.” The most recent debunk was published earlier this month and it tackles the rumor that FEMA is “moving resources away from North Carolina and other areas affected by Helene to respond to the California wildfires.” The agency notes that it has “enough funding to support recovery efforts in multiple areas, including communities affected by Hurricanes Helene and Milton as well as response efforts in California.”
What Else Did Trump Say In The Interview?
This was Trump’s first sit-down interview since taking office. He discussed his sweeping pardons for people convicted in the Jan. 6 riots and former President Joe Biden’s pardons for his family. When Hannity asked him about pardoning people convicted of violence against police, Trump said: “They were in there for three-and-a-half years, a long time, and many in solitary confinement, treated like nobody’s ever been treated…like the worst criminals in history.” He then added that most people he pardoned were innocent and many had served “horribly, a long time” and it would be “very, very cumbersome to go and look” at each of the 1,500 people’s convictions. On Biden’s pardons for his family members, Trump said the former president set an “unbelievable precedent” for him to follow. “This guy went around giving everybody pardons, and you know, the funny thing, maybe the sad thing, is he didn’t give himself a pardon. If you look at it, it all had to do with him,” the president added.
Further Reading
Trump’s Biggest Firings So Far: José Andrés, Mark Milley, Coast Guard Chief (Forbes)
Trump Administration Moves To Shut Down Federal DEI Initiatives And Put Staffers On Leave (Forbes)
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