ASHEVILLE, North Carolina, Jan 24 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said he would sign an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally overhauling or eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “FEMA has turned out to be a disaster … I think we recommend that FEMA go away,” he said during a tour of North Carolina to see damage done by Hurricane Helene last year.

  • @[email protected]
    132•3 days ago

    I’m willing to bet that the “problem” with FEMA is that, due to its vital role in dealing with emergencies, it has particularly stringent safeguards in place to prevent it becoming a partisan tool. And since Trump’s stated goal is to turn the entirety of the federal government into a partisan tool, it has to go.

    • @RememberTheApollo_OP
      48•3 days ago

      Maybe there are some buddies of the trump crime family that would be happy to privatize aid to disaster victims for a nice fee, and trump would like to withhold or bestow aid on States and individual officials that kiss his ass. So you bet the Left Coast won’t be getting any, but Mar a Lago will get a new roof every year.

    • @RizzRustbolt
      22•3 days ago

      Nah, it’s just really hard to steal from it without people noticing.

      • @Frozengyro
        6•3 days ago

        How hard can it be? They have to buy supplies and resources somewhere. And in an emergency no one is looking where you get stuff, from who, or how much. I’m surprised it isn’t ripe for abuse…

        • @RizzRustbolt
          6•3 days ago

          Used to be that easy. Then Bush 2 and his fleet of RVs happened.

        • @Maggoty
          2•3 days ago

          Ironically, the Republicans installed a lot of oversight against single source contracting. You can do it but it’s very obvious. So privatizing the entire thing makes it easier to grift.

    • @[email protected]English
      12•3 days ago

      I would bet it was as stupid as someone (or even naturally by group via social media) inventing a narrative during the Biden administration because everything he does is evil. Then the destruction of the agency being the natural conclusion of said narrative. It wins points for Trump since people living in that reality see this as a win over evil.

      Then later, when it all blows up, likely during the next hurricane, they can just figure someone else to blame. Everything is probably purely off the cuff.

      It’s what con men do. Just roll with everything and keep it up for as long as they can. It’s worked for Trump his entire life.