Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem indicated on Sunday that President Donald Trump has changed his position when it comes to terminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
After the president spent months insisting that FEMA must be “TERMINATED” due to being “slow and totally ineffective,” Noem said Trump instead wants to see the agency “remade” and change how it deploys and supports states.
In a statement to Newsweek on Sunday, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in part, “The President’s FEMA Review Council, comprised of top experts in their field, will recommend to the President how FEMA may be reformed in ways that best serve the national interest, including how America responds to and recovers from disasters such that the Federal role remains supplemental and appropriate to the scale of disaster.”
Why It Matters
FEMA is an agency that leads the federal response to natural disasters, coordinates with state and local governments and provides assistance to individuals, families, and businesses affected by events like floods and hurricanes.
For months, Trump has connected FEMA with the “waste, fraud, and abuse” that his administration targeted through the work of Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
In a Truth Social post made in early February, the president wrote the “BIDEN RUN FEMA HAS BEEN A TOTAL DISASTER. INEFFECTIVE. INDIVIDUAL STATES SHOULD HANDLE STORMS, ETC., AS THEY COME. BIG SAVINGS, FAR MORE EFFICIENT!!!”
In January, Trump had suggested that he would sign an executive order to “fundamentally reform and overhaul FEMA, or maybe get rid of” it. The administration, meanwhile, denied funds to Washington state and North Carolina in April after devastating hurricane and storm damage ravaged the states despite Washington Governor Bob Ferguson saying his state met all criteria to qualify for funds.
Trump recently announced the FEMA Review Council, which a White House official told Newsweek had “a series of productive public meetings” and that “no policy changes have been announced,” but that “there was always the idea that FEMA needs to be drastically changed, and that will happen.”
In a Newsweek op-ed published last week, former FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell made clear that the agency has always existed as a support apparatus and not as one that takes over or runs disaster relief operations, writing that “FEMA exists to support states and communities when they need help the most. But the system only works when it’s allowed to work.”
What To Know
Trump and Noem visited Kerr County, Texas, after at least 120 people died from catastrophic flooding last weekend. The president did an aerial tour of the hard-hit areas and received a briefing from local officials, then approved a request from Texas Governor Greg Abbott to extend the major disaster declaration to surrounding areas.
Noem told NBC News’ Meet the Press host Kristen Welker that the president “recognizes that FEMA should not exist the way that it always has been. It needs to be redeployed in a new way, and that’s what we did during this response.”
Trump has, at times, said that FEMA “as it exists today” is his focus, and Noem backed that more tempered approach. During an interview with CNN in February, Noem said she would advise the president to “get rid of FEMA the way it exists today.”
“You need to let the local officials make the decisions on how that is deployed so it can be deployed much quicker and we don’t need the bureaucracy that’s picking and choosing winners,” Noem said at the time.
She reiterated that stance on Sunday but indicated it’s now a view the president shares with her.
“What the president wants to do is empower these states to run their emergency, and we come in and support them, and immediately, when those requests were made, they were approved and deployed,” Noem said.
When pressed by Welker as to whether the president has moved away from wanting to eradicate FEMA and instead overhaul the organization, Noem said she thinks Trump “wants it to be remade so that it’s an agency that is new in how it deploys and supports states.”
“If you saw, it’s not just FEMA that can respond in these situations,” Noem said. “The federal government has all kinds of assets, and we deployed them; The Coast Guard coming in and saving individuals with their rescue swimmers, with their helicopters.”
“They had a fixed wing aircraft deployed as well, Border Patrol with their BORTAC teams, and, now, we’ve got also some dog teams that are down there helping with recovery efforts,” Noem added. “And then FEMA, alongside of them, helping people, setting up shelters, deploying supplies. It was all immediate.”
Kent Nishimura/Getty Images
What People Are Saying
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Newsweek in an emailed statement: “Effective response and recovery from disasters relies on strong local and state leadership. While Federal assistance was always intended to supplement state actions, not replace those actions, FEMA’s outsized role created a bloated bureaucracy that disincentivized state investment in their own resilience.”
She continued: “President Trump is committed to right-sizing the Federal government while empowering State and local governments by enabling them to better understand, plan for, and ultimately address the needs of their citizens. The President’s FEMA Review Council, comprised of top experts in their field, will recommend to the President how FEMA may be reformed in ways that best serve the national interest, including how America responds to and recovers from disasters such that the Federal role remains supplemental and appropriate to the scale of disaster.”
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “The immediate disaster response was swift and efficient. DHS assets, including the U.S. Coast Guard, Border Patrol, and FEMA personnel surged into unprecedented action alongside Texas first responders. This was a historic, first-of-its-kind approach to disaster funding: putting states first by providing upfront recovery support — moving money faster than ever and jump starting recovery.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday: “The president wants to ensure American citizens always have what they need during times of need. Whether that assistance comes from states or the federal government, that’s a policy discussion that will continue.”
What Happens Next?
The Trump administration continues to administer aid to the victims in Kerr County and surrounding areas as the search for dozens of missing people continues.