President Donald Trump seems to have chosen a strange time to announce he was intending to get rid of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, aka FEMA. At a press briefing on Friday in North Carolina where he traveled to assess recovery from September’s Hurricane Helene, Trump casually dropped the bomb upon arrival.

"I think, frankly, that FEMA is not good," Trump told reporters upon arrival in Asheville. "I think when you have a problem like this, I think you want to use your state to fix it and not waste time calling FEMA … I think we're going to recommend that FEMA go away." He went to describe FEMA as a "big disappointment."

Who Should Deal With Disasters?

Let the governors figure it out. "I like, frankly, the concept [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 takes care of it," Trump said.

FEMA Responds

"We need to take him at his word, and I think state emergency management directors should be concerned about what this means for spring tornado season and hurricane season in the future," former FEMA chief Deanne Criswell told CNN. "Do they have the resources to protect their residents?"

Trump Rankles Californians

Trump's visit to California Friday afternoon got contentious before he even arrived when he suggested federal recovery aid for the devastating wildfires be on condition of releasing water to fight the fires and changing the state’s voter ID requirement.

The ID law, signed last year by Gov. Gavin Newsom, bars local jurisdictions from requiring a voter ID cast a ballot. In addition to irking Trump, his sidekick Elon Musk contends that the ID law is aimed at encouraging voter fraud. "The reason is to cheat, obviously," Musk said on Joe Rogan's podcast one day before the November election.

Meanwhile, Trump did not invite Newsom to a special meeting in Los Angeles though the governor said he’d be on the tarmac to greet the president.

Companies Involved With FEMA

FEMA awarded AT&T Inc T four separate contracts for modernized communications capabilities to help improve its ability to deliver its mission to help people before, during and after disasters. The contract, awarded in 2022 and valued at more than $167 million, runs for over five years.

"Timely, accurate communications are mission-critical for FEMA," noted AT&T.

In terms of infrastructure and construction, Fluor Corp FLR announced in 2024 that it had been selected by FEMA to provide recovery services. The contract has a potential value of up to $525.6 million over five years, stated the company's newsletter.

Jacobs Solutions Inc. J: The company was awarded a contract to provide public assistance support services, according to GovCon Wire.

Serco Group plc, which trades on the London Stock Exchange, secured in February 2024 a single-award indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contract with FEMA, valued at up to $525 million over five years.

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