I was stunned by President Trump’s call on Friday to local Los Angeles leaders after the disastrous LA fires that FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) failed miserably in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene and ought to be eliminated altogether. Congressman Brad Sherman, my own congressional representative who also represents part of the Pacific Palisades community that was destroyed by the fires, challenged the President about the efficacy and importance of FEMA only to be interrupted and bullied by the President who kept claiming that FEMA is a disaster and utterly failed in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene.

Hurricane Helene was a disastrous storm that caused catastrophic damage with many deaths across the Southeast in late September 2024. It was the strongest hurricane on record and the deadliest hurricane since 2017 and the deadliest to strike the United States since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The Charlotte Observer, North Carolina’s newspaper, however, clarified how, in fact, FEMA dramatically assisted the people who suffered from Hurricane Helene. I quote from that article titled – “Trump disparaged FEMA in NC. Here’s what the agency did during Hurricane Helene” (by Joe Marusak and Ames Alexander – updated January 24, 2025) – https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article299107370.html

“Here’s what FEMA says it did before and after the storm: [FEMA] deployed at least 1,500 FEMA staff members in the Southeast before the hurricane made landfall, Deanne Criswell, FEMA’s top administrator at the time, told The Charlotte Observer in a Dec. 4 interview. “Just because you don’t see somebody in a FEMA shirt walking on the streets the day after a disaster doesn’t mean FEMA is not there,” Criswell said. “We have people on the ground.” … Before the storm’s arrival, FEMA placed millions of liters of water and many meals in staging areas where they could be quickly distributed in North Carolina, Criswell said. “We were working side by side with the state before Helene even came into North Carolina, and we’re still there today,” she said. [FEMA] had hospital assessment teams out within 24 hours of the storm’s arrival to make sure no patients needed to be evacuated, according to Criswell. [FEMA] provided hotel stays for almost 13,000 displaced Western North Carolina households. About 2,700 of those households are still checked into hotels. [FEMA] provided more than $316 million in cash grants, including more than $6.2 million in rental assistance, to Western North Carolina survivors. [FEMA] planned one-day agriculture recovery centers to help North Carolina farmers recover from Helene damage. Trump’s latest comments come at a time of increased concern over climate change and more frequent severe weather events. Trump has already begun rolling back some regulations aimed at preventing climate shocks.”

Trump’s ignorance about FEMA or his cynical misstatement of the truth about what FEMA does is dangerous to the well-being of potentially millions of Americans around the country in blue and red states who will be victimized by natural disasters, many of which are made worse by climate change that the President insists isn’t real (on his first day in office last week, Trump with drew again from the Paris Climate Accord).

Congressman Sherman insisted on asking, over Trump’s incessant interruptions, what small states are expected to do in order to address natural disasters should FEMA be eliminated. He didn’t say (as I believe he should have done) that California contributes to the federal government in far greater dollars to the federal budget than virtually every other state (being the largest state with 40 million citizens) as well as being a major exporter of agricultural and technological products to the nation as a whole.

Trump’s advance team to this visit excluded from the list of officials to meet with the President, California’s Governor Gavin Newsom. It’s no secret that the two leaders represent vastly different views on virtually every issue from climate change to human rights and immigration. Since Trump, because so often he doesn’t have the facts and makes stuff up, constantly resorts to name-calling (e.g. Newscum). However, our Governor understood the significance of the President’s visit and met him at the airport.

Apparently, Governor Newsom informed and charmed the President enough to exact a promise from him that he would do everything he could to help LA recover from these horrendous fires. Trump also promised in the meeting with the local officials, including LA’s Mayor Karen Bass, that he would respond to every request she made of the federal government. But, he continued to bad-mouth FEMA unnecessarily and contrary to the truth of what this agency does.

What Trump will ultimately do regarding FEMA is unclear, but his threats to eliminate this federal agency that does so much to help Americans who suffer from natural disasters is a disaster itself in the making. One can only hope that Trump’s supporters, especially in small red states that will suffer from future disasters will prevail upon him quietly to back away from his outrageous threats.