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By Rachel Dobkin
Weekend Reporter
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U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem told CNN's Dana Bash on Sunday morning that she would tell President Donald Trump to abolish the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) "the way it exists today."
Newsweek reached out to FEMA via email for comment outside of business hours on Sunday.
Why It Matters
Trump has repeatedly spread claims about FEMA's response to Hurricane Helene which devastated western North Carolina and Florida's Big Bend region and the California wildfires that burned through Los Angeles County during the latter part of the Joe Biden administration, including that the agency was biased against people in Republican-led areas. Meanwhile, FEMA and other officials denied Trump's claims and provided evidence to the contrary.
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He also has proposed getting rid of FEMA altogether, preferring that "the states take care of their own problems" as he put it during an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity last month.
What To Know
During a Sunday appearance on CNN's State of The Union, Bash asked Noem, former South Dakota governor, if Trump could, and if he should, shut FEMA down.
"He can and I believe that he will do that evaluation with his team," Noem said. "He'll work with Congress though to make sure it's done correctly and that we're still there to help folks who have a terrible disaster or crisis in their life."
Noem said Trump still believes in some kind of federal government intervention when it comes to disaster relief, "but there's a lot of fraud and waste and abuse out there and since President Trump has taken over and come back into this administration, we've seen incredible change."
Noem did not go into detail about her claims of FEMA's fraud, waste and abuse.
Bash then asked: "If the president came to you and said, 'You're my DHS secretary, do you think I should get rid of FEMA?' What would you say?"
"I would say 'yes get rid of FEMA the way it exists today,'" Noem said. "We still need the resources and the funds and the finances to go to people that have these types of disasters like Hurricane Helene and the fires in California, but 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."
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What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump said in late January during his visit to western North Carolina: "We're looking at the whole concept of FEMA. Frankly, I like the idea that when North Carolina gets hit, the governor takes care of it. When Florida gets hit, the governor takes care of it—meaning the state handles it. I'd like to see the states take care of disasters."
Tech billionaire Elon Musk, head of Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday: "FEMA is broken" in response to an X post from radio host Glenn Beck who predicted that the disaster relief agency will be shut down.
Then-FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell said at a press conference in October as Hurricane Milton was making its way to Florida that the amount of disinformation about hurricanes has reached a level "that I've never seen before."
What Happens Next?
Last month, Trump signed an executive order to create a task force, which includes Noem, to review FEMA, advise Trump on its ability to "capably and impartially address disasters" and recommend changes to the president.
While the task force could recommend abolishing the agency, only Congress has the power to do so since they allocate funds to the agency.
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