The President met with California Governor Newsom asked California Senator Schiff to fly with him on Air Force One vernor…
Schiff was unable accompmany The PRESIDENT due to other appointments…
Newsom got along fine with the President….
(Newsom and Schiff have thrown political digs at the Republican President in the past…Trump LOST California all 3 times in Presidential elections)
Trump also stopped in North Carolina first to survey the last Hurricane damage and knock Biden and FEMA…
Trump DID bring up a point that HAS been discussed before…
State’s taking on more responsibility for disaster incidents….
The issue IS complex and has political and practical issues…..
FEMA, The Federal Emergency Managament Agency, just cooridinates Federal, State and Local assets…
It does NOT do the work…It DOES provide funding to those agencies doing the work….
Some state’s CAN do more…
Some state simply do not have the ability to do so….
And THAT where the politics has failed to address FEMA and what it has been tasked to do with ever increasing natural disaster incidents…
FEMA IS a Congressional made governmental department….
Trump cannot simpy change much of anything with the agency without approval for Congress , which funds it and defines its authority …
That would include holding money for Voter ID and Water resources policy changes…
“We’re going to supply the money, supply a lot of the money,” he[Trump] said. “You’ll chip in a little something, like 25 percent or whatever.”
President Trump mused on Friday about shutting down the Federal Emergency Management Agency, saying that states could do a better job at responding to disasters.
“When you have a problem like this, I think you want to go, whether it’s a Democrat or Republican governor, you want to use your state to fix it,” Mr. Trump said in Asheville, N.C., which was devastated by the remnants of Hurricane Helene last year.
“I think we’re going to recommend that FEMA go away and we pay directly — we pay a percentage to the state,” Mr. Trump added. “The state should fix it.”
Mr. Trump does not have the authority to shutter FEMA, which would require congressional action. Historically, lawmakers from both parties have supported FEMA, knowing that their district or state could need the agency’s help at any time.
Mr. Trump inaccurately characterized FEMA’s role, which is to support state and local officials only if those officials are unable to respond to disasters on their own, and only at the request of a governor.
Disaster response work is “locally executed, state managed and federally supported,” Pete Gaynor, who ran FEMA during Mr. Trump’s first term, said in an interview. The agency is a backstop, not a first responder, he said.
Mr. Trump’s statements in North Carolina echoed comments he made on Wednesday night in an interview on Fox News, saying “ FEMA is getting in the way of everything.” Referring to Oklahoma, he said: “If they get hit with a tornado or something, let Oklahoma fix it. You don’t need — and then the federal government can help them out with the money.”
Mr. Trump’s comments have FEMA’s staff “feeling betrayed and scared,” said an employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of a fear of reprisal. “Our employees have been there for the American people over and over again,” the employee said. “We already had a burnout issue at this agency that his statement and interview just put on steroids.”
Project 2025, the blueprint for a Republican administration that was produced by the Heritage Foundation, calls for flipping the financial burden of response to small disasters so that 75 percent is carried by states and the rest by the federal government. Russell Vought, the chief architect of Project 2025, is Mr. Trump’s pick to run the Office of Management and Budget, where he would significantly shape the federal budget….
…
A growing number of federal emergency managers say some reforms are needed and that FEMA is overextended.
“The real question is how those burdens should be shared at all levels of government,” said Daniel Kaniewski, the second-highest ranking official at FEMA during Mr. Trump’s first administration and now a managing director at Marsh McLennan, a consulting firm.
The past four administrators of FEMA — two appointed by Democrats, and two appointed by Mr. Trump — have made versions of that argument, calling for states to do more. But states generally want more help, not less.
Mr. Trump may force states to take on a greater role.
“The gentle nudging hasn’t changed the outcome,” said Roy Wright, who held senior roles at FEMA during the Obama and first Trump administrations. “We need a different approach.”
That debate comes as extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and severe because of climate change, and Mr. Trump has canceled some of the policies designed to make the United States more resilient to climate shocks….
Top image….President Trump arrives in Los Angeles and is greeted by California’s governor, Gavin Newsom. The two have sparred in recent days, but they appeared cordial as they chatted on the tarmac.Credit…Kenny Holston/The New York Times
Bottom image…Fire-affected residents met with FEMA officials in Pasadena, Calif., on Jan. 14.Credit…Frederic J. Brown/Agence France-Presse — Getty
Note…
Donald Trump looks tired like a 79 year old who is doing a bit too much?
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