What do y’all think about this step Donald Trump is taking?

[Oliverlogan263]

I agree

I disagree

[abc3643]

As usual, most conservative people are idiots.

Furthermore, getting rid of FEMA is part of Project 2025, by The Heritage Foundation - a conservative think tank of mostly privileged wealthy White guys. They want it gone because that's less spending (and regulation) which enables them to make more money or get better tax breaks.

No, not only should FEMA exist, it should be beefed-up. Given global warming, its services will be needed even moreso in the coming decades.

What DOES need to happen is that disaster relief in the USA get its shit together; too many organizations give relief; for instance, you could get relief from FEMA and the Small Business Association (SBA).

Any and all disaster relief services need to be handled through the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) including its own armed force so as not to have to deal with the Department of Defense or National Guards. FEMA is part of DHS.

========

This is from Google Gemini in response to this question:
What parts of the federal government provide disaster relief?

The primary federal agency responsible for disaster relief is the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is part of the Department of Homeland Security; FEMA coordinates federal operations and provides logistical support to disaster zones, offering individual assistance and public assistance to affected communities following a presidentially declared disaster.

Other federal agencies that may contribute to disaster relief include:
* U. S. Army Corps of Engineers: Can assist with infrastructure repairs and emergency response efforts.

* Small Business Administration (SBA): Provides low-interest loans to businesses and homeowners impacted by a disaster.

* Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD): May offer housing assistance to disaster victims

* Internal Revenue Service (IRS): Can expedite tax refunds for individuals in declared disaster areas

* Department of Health and Human Services: May provide medical support and public health assistance in disaster situations

Key points to remember:
FEMA is the central agency for disaster relief:
When a disaster occurs, FEMA coordinates federal response efforts and provides financial assistance to individuals and communities.
Presidential declaration is required:
For federal disaster assistance to be available, the President must declare a disaster area.
Multiple agencies may be involved:
Depending on the nature of the disaster, different federal agencies may be called upon to provide specialized assistance.

============

So, no, getting rid of FEMA is a very bad idea. Suggesting it is like saying "Let's get rid of doctors! People should be able to heal themselves."

Remember:

"United We Stand", to conservatives, really means, "Fuck you. Take care of yourself and leave me alone."... of course until THEY need help... like during the Great Recession or whatever hurricane du jour hits the South.

[DrPepper12]

Those fuckers voted against aid for super storm Sandy when NYC was fucking WRECKED
They also lined up for all kinds of anti-terrorism cash after 9/11 so their no stop light towns can have 6 Humvees, a swat team & updated water filtration system security.
We haven't forgotten here in NY. Fuckers.

[MisterWack]

It is one thing to believe something is inefficient, it is another to believe in the prospect of kill it & ask questions later.

This is what Trump wanted to do with Affordable Care Act in his first term promising a “bigger better plan” then when asked face to face in the 2024 election he admitted, “I have concepts of a plan”.

Imagine you are in the cafeteria and your family can’t afford lunch for you, so they go with the school lunch program…. Imagine a politician sees the quality isn’t up to code so they ban it however don’t put a new plan in place, wouldn’t that impact your life as that child who used to get lunch now can’t? Exactly, so why would you not handle it the same way?

This isn’t Conservative V. Progressive or Progressive V. Conservative, this is human decency and lives on the line. Imagine yourself in the place of that person affected. Trump is on his 2nd and last term, he has nothing to lose politically or anything to gain politically anymore so why would he stick his neck out for us? George Bush Jr. with Hurricane Katrina did the same and Barack Obama didn’t help us get out of Afghanistan…. I just don’t have faith in a 2nd term presidency with a man who kills things and asks questions later.

[MisterWack]

*Imagine you are in the cafeteria and your family can’t afford lunch for you, so they go with the school lunch program…. Imagine a politician sees the quality isn’t up to code so they ban it however don’t put a new plan in place, wouldn’t that impact your life as that child who used to get lunch now can’t? Exactly, so why would you not handle it the same way?

[Anonymous]

Flying around to disaster areas like California but saying how he isn't going to help is pathetic. Do people who see him posing for pictures really fall for such nonsense?

[WhiteSteve]

I want to laugh and say “good fuckin’ luck with that, red states”, but the reality of the potential effects and my aim to not be a piece of shit while deriding others for the very reason of being pieces of shit, I can’t quite go there.

But on paper…. this is laughable, and I can’t imagine most of these broke ass red states who can’t even provide REGULAR shit to a quality level would ever have a strong enough emergency fund to handle a natural disaster. Good luck in the Midwest in Tornado Alley, and good luck with the next “Hurricane Whoever-The-Fuck” along the coast of the “Gulf Of America.”

[goaded]

They really don't get that it's cheaper to centralise things like this.

[WhiteSteve]

@goaded It’s wild. I’ll never understand why people can’t pay their taxes and shut the fuck up about it. And instead of pushing for the mega-wealthy to pay their fair share, they let those same people convince them that will be bad for them.

A part of me wants to just give up and start grifting right wingers myself. It seems so fucking easy to bamboozle these guys, lmao.

[exitseven]

The federal government will provide relief directly to the state emergency services bypassing FEMA completely.

[goaded]

@exitseven Then every state has to fund, say, 10% of the resources of FEMA each instead of having an equal share of 2%.

Think about saying each house in a town has to manage fire safety itself instead of sharing a fire engine between them. It's less effective and more expensive.

[exitseven]

@goaded If every state funds 10% then FEMA will collect 500% more money. The numbers dont add up

[goaded]

@exitseven You misunderstand me. If there were no FEMA, each state would have to fund resources they might need only once every decade or two. That would cost perhaps 10% of the federal FEMA budget per state. Having FEMA means that the country saves 80% of that by centralising the resources so they can be used as disasters strike.

It's cheaper overall to have resources that can be sent to once-in-a-lifetime events in every state than for every state to go it alone.

How many snow ploughs should Florida maintain? (I'm sure that's a ridiculous analogy, but I hope you know what I mean.)

[exitseven]

@goaded States have these anyway. FEMA s just another layer of bureaucracy on top of the state bureaucracy. At the very least FEMA needs to be purged of all the wokeness and new people with America's interests are hired.

[goaded]

@exitseven Weren't the right complaining that FEMA wasn't turning up, just a couple of months ago? Get your stories straight!

"North Carolina was severely impacted by Hurricane Helene during late September 2024, primarily in its western Appalachian region, causing at least 104 reported deaths and significant destruction of infrastructure and residential areas across several settlements."
en.wikipedia.org/.../Effects_of_Hurricane_Helene_in_North_Carolina

"FEMA plans to update flood maps in 2026 after having been restricted by Congress to only look at past events for determining which properties are required to get flood insurance." Hah! "by Congress"? By Republicans!

[exitseven]

@goaded FEMA has been totally ineffective. New Orleans is still trying to recover from storms from over ten years ago. Trump is interested in results not niceties and he certainly objects to spending money on shuttling illegal aliens around the country,. Either FEMA gets shut own or else it gets overhauled but one way of another it will get the results that America wants.

[goaded]

@exitseven Many of them wouldn't be alive without FEMA. And, just to remind you, that was in 2005, under Bush. "Heck of a job!"

[exitseven]

@goaded FEMA is only one of many government agencies that have lost their focus. President Trump wants to fix them all.

[goaded]

@exitseven Of course he does. He also wants to give everybody affordable health care.

[RingOfFire]

We've got to clean house. Business as usual is no longer an option. There is tremendous waste, fraud, corruption and abuse in every department of government that has been festering for decades and it is about time that we get a leader in place who is going to do something about it before the entire government collapses under the weight of massive corruption.

Taxpayers are being fleeced and massively overburdened by all this corruption. They are not getting their money's worth and they are paying way too much.

There is no time to waste, we need exactly what President Trump and his administration are trying to do or this country will be doomed.

It's not going to be easy. There is an army of corruption in the federal government that is fighting against giving up its gravy train with the corrupt power of their agencies behind them.

It's going to take an internal political war to clean them up. The Democrats (and some Republicans) are hell-bent on protecting the corrupt. But Americans need to buckle up and get behind President Trump so he can win this war and liberate Americans from all this evil deep state threat.

[loveslongnails]

He's an idiot. FEMA helped a lot of people. The reason it can't do more is a) Congress under funds it and b) nobody is ever in charge of it who knows what the fuck to do in emergencies. The US govt doesn't take "disaster relief" seriously. Scump doesn't want the responsibility to try and fix it, so he'll just blow it up. Typical idiot reaction.

[overlord337645]

i would say dont hold your breath any person in politics will know the first step of getting anywhere is to be appealing to an audience preferably as many people as you can that dosent mean you have to agree with it it just means you gotta act like you do. My point i am getting at here is this is trumps second term he has nothing to lose but he wants to keep his image spotless to his supporters so as long as he keeps them happy when he does whatever he wants no one will care

[NicholasRedone]

As an Aussie, as I always have to disclaimer. Lol.
I find it disappointing for you Americans or for you Yanks to have that new President undoing all the wonderful work of past Presidents, particular the Democrat (or Democratic Party) presidents. Sighs.

Anyways, it's what y'all majority voted for, however I for one am hopeful someday aka 2028 election, you Americans vote in another Democrat again 😄

[Sevenpointfive]

i love that disclaimer lol

[Avicenna]

If the functions of the agency can be taken over by others and the agency is too corrupt to be reformed, I don't see why it's a problem. Democrats howl about any changes like this because they have their ideologues in charge of such agencies and want them using the power of government to push through the leftist agenda, regardless of what these agencies were actually intended to be doing.

[DrPepper12]

WHAT CORRUPTION? More importantly, are red states up to the task of taking care of their own shit?

The answer is NO! They are hypocritical parasites

[Avicenna]

@DrPepper12: I know you're oblivious to the complete and utter dysfunction and corruption in blue states and in the federal government, but in the real world, it isn't fealty to Marxism that actually gets things done and reality isn't found in the propaganda sources you imbibe daily.

And the funny thing about this alleged "parasitism" is that the corrupt Biden Administration and Democrat-run localities and states kept shoveling tons of money to leftists and their illegal invader pets. And blue states have benefited from the lousy policies of the last few decades, especially those surrounding illegal invaders.

But keep blathering the same nonsense- you're making a fool of yourself.

[DrPepper12]

Now answer if red states can take care of themselves.

[Avicenna]

Actually, the real question is can leftists take care of themselves without public sector and DEI employment and other government largesse (they can’t). Nothing is more parasitical than that, especially all that money leftist get for the illegals that gets filtered through leftist organizations.

But, yeah, red states can. Leftist California sure wouldn’t be rebuilding from the fires on its own. And don’t forget that the parasitical blue states have benefited from lousy public policies. People are more likely to leave them due to these bad policies.

[DrPepper12]

Without federal aid red states would collapse. Good luck with that!

[exitseven]

FEMA has shown itself to be totally ineffective. It either needs to be purged of all the incompetent employees and reformed under the new administration or else get rid if it completely and let the states perform those duties.

[DrPepper12]

Can
Red
America
Afford
It
?

[AviatorTom]

The Executive Order is to set up a task force to determine what to do with FEMA, not eliminate it. Thst would require Congress.

Considering how FEMA has done lately, it definitely needs an overhaul, if not total elimination.

[DrPepper12]

WTH? Can red states AFFORD to take care of themselves?

[AviatorTom]

@DrPepper12 I guess it depends on the state. Florida did a pretty good job of recovering from last year's hurricanes, with limited help from FEMA.

[lightbulb27]

he said maybe, doesn't like how expensive and ineffective it is.

I approve of cracking the whip...

[Anonymous]

I mean FEMA has not been very effective in the last few natural disasters and after the hurricanes in October FEMA officials said they didn’t have enough funds for the rest of that weather season. Now whether or not you agree with what the new president is doing I think we can all agree something has to be done and I am going to hold judgement until we see how this all ends

[Opinion Owner]

I admit I am not caught up to date on what’s happening in California but are FEMA agents helping with the Fire Relief?

[Joshydavid25]

I wish he would eliminate all those useless government agencies like FEMA, the FBI, IRS, CIA, and the many other federal agencies that practically do nothing..

[DrPepper12]

Ok junior. Lemme guess, "taxation is theft" right? 🙄

[Joshydavid25]

@DrPepper12 It surely is.. If I don't pay them I could go to jail and I didn't really get a say in whether a portion of my earnings get taken.. I would call that legalized theft..

[DrPepper12]

I call it civilization.

[Joshydavid25]

@DrPepper12 Of course you do Dr.

[DrPepper12]

Social contract beyond your keen? I hear Epstein Island is for sale. You could make your own Principality of Josh there...

[Joshydavid25]

@DrPepper12 I wouldn't mind buying that if I had the money.. Haha.. Just because Epstein did some scummy stuff there doesn't mean I will..

[KrakenAttackin]

When I graduated from college I briefly considered a career with FEMA, until our college guidance counselor (a retired CIA officer), told me "FEMA is a dumping ground for idiots and political appointments, that's not for you".

[Sevenpointfive]

i don't think it's necessarily about getting rid of useless departments as it is reforming them. but it's a good start

[Filthy_Immigrant]

the fact that FEMA did not delivered that they promise during the recent NC hurricane along with Katrina back in 2005 speaks loud enough as to why it deserves to have its plug pulled

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

Agree with his position.

States should handle their own natural disasters and have their own team set up and if they need extra money the government will send it to them.

[DrPepper12]

"and if they need extra money the government will send it to them"
What government would that be? The FEDS?

[DrPepper12]

Red states can't take care of themselves!!!

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

The government gives all states billions of Dollars yearly.

Budget funds aside for natural disasters in case if one happens and if extra funds are needed the federal government will send them the money.

[DrPepper12]

You sir are a fool

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

How so? You didn't know all states have their own budget in the several billions?

How difficult is to set up a natural disaster team and have funds available if one hit the state?

[jshm2]

LOL - what next? Getting rid of police and firefighters?

[Ladsin2]

Probably A, but I'd have to see the details. They haven't apparently been doing a great job. As such they should be reformed or eliminated. No need to carry dead-weight.

[Anonymous]

FEMA is not performing as it should be. There's been too many scandals of corruption and incompetence.

[NatalieKeller95]

Glorious Trump makes all the right decisions all the time,

[Dargil]

Overhaul? Absolutely. How It treated Appalachia is shameful.

[DrPepper12]

Let them go it alone then. Good luck! 🤞🏻🍀

[SolitarySolace]

Agree because FEMA is just as corrupt as everything else the democrats have touched

[DrPepper12]

Let the states take care of themselves? Lmk how that goes for red states

[CalmUntilAbused]

@DrPepper12 Oh... Do You really want to know? As for how the red states are doing right now:

m.youtube.com/watch

And mind You, while this channel is not always the most factually reliable, they actually mentioned their sources this time, and since it is usually heavily left-leaning, if they were forced to admit that people are fleeing the most famous blue states en masse (though not explicitly, only mentioning the names of the states or cities), it is probably much worse than they show it.

[CalmUntilAbused]

@DrPepper12 Now, it seems that all this overtaxation is not even to the benefit of the citizens of certain blue states, like California. I mean... With taxes so high they are literally making people leave the state, and for two hardcore red states, no less, I would expect California to be able to deal with those recent fires quickly enough that no one outside California would even hear of them. Apparently, that is not the case.

[CalmUntilAbused]

Now, as for the red states like Florida or Texas... Texas is mostly safe anyway, and the citizens of Florida, with taxes apparently lower than in Texas in some counties, are perfectly capable of saving up enough money to deal with the fallout of most natural disasters by themselves through neighbourhood mutual assistance funds. Then again, if the federal taxes got lowered in response to the abolition of FEMA, the money paid by Florida to uphold FEMA could be transferred directly to the state of Florida itself, assuring more competent fund management and therefore providing an additional boost to the state of Florida's self-defence capabilities against natural disasters. Now then, since the federal government subsidizes the states' governments anyway and according to some of the comments on this matter by other GaG members, the state of Florida is doing a good enough job as things are right now, so I do not think the citizens of Florida have any reason to worry about natural disasters if FEMA was indeed abolished. I am not sure about the other hurricane-infested red states, but if some of them are in worse condition, then if need be, they can reach out to some incredibly rich red states like Texas for help. I highly doubt the Texans would be indifferent to human suffering... They are mostly conservatives and probably even believers, You see... Though I guess some blue states, like California, should actually hope for a hurricane strong enough to flung some of those who fled them back. Only problem (for those blue states) is, no hurricanes so far were strong enough, and if one was, I do not think the "repatriated" citizens would arrive alive anyway.

[DrPepper12]

No. Just no. Think Mississippi or Louisiana. They're broke NOW

[CalmUntilAbused]

@DrPepper12 Well... In those cases, I would need an input of someone who is a citizen of either of those states. Though it might just be that You are misjudging those states due to their low state taxes (probably a common trait for conservative states). Since they are getting subsidized and they have the potential of raising the taxes somewhat without pushing their citizens to extinction, unlike blue states like California or New York, they might just be fine.

[Anonymous]

I don't know if that is the best choice, but it's certainly a fact that FEMA is an inefficient, ineffective disaster itself. Something needs to change.

[UrsulaY]

It is only to make himself look good. He does not care about his voters.

[onedarkcloud]

It's almost years too late. FEMA is not doing what it was designed for besides funding illegals and everything other thing needing funding

[Anonymous]

good. he should get rid of them. FEMA is corrupt and incompetent

[seeyounexttuesday]

It seems like needless bureaucracy to have FEMA

[standardguy]

If the FEMA is corrupt then yes but no every big organization can't be bashed.

[Alex-Snow]

Unbelievably stupid

[chrissykerdock]

fema failed so he's putting on the heat

[BarryLiverstone]

Wouldn’t work for smaller states

[NicholasRedone]

And the irony - I also voted disagree - because in my mind as a biased leftie, surely bureaucracy is a good thing when "order is needed" aka "direction is everything" you know it's like explaining the obvious , if there's no coordinators, who'd co-ordinate. And if there's no coordination, how could anyone be helped. Ah well

[NicholasRedone]

Peace kind Americans 😶☺️

[Anonymous]

I totally agree with Trump on this.

[Anonymous]

Just a publicity stunt to get a photo op

[GlowUpGirly5]

Excellent

[Dongie]

That's great!

[Wise4myage]

I definitely agree.