President Donald Trump suggested that FEMA could soon be on the chopping block, promising a “big discussion” on the future of the agency.
The comments came Wednesday night during an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, which the network touted as Trump’s first Oval Office interview since his inauguration on Monday.
“FEMA is going to be a whole big discussion very shortly because I’d rather see the states take care of their own problems,” Trump said. He added that “all it does is complicate everything.”
Trump went on to say that while he was president, the federal disaster agency was “working very well.” But, he told Hannity, “What they’ve done with FEMA is so bad.”
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“FEMA has not done their job for the last four years,” he said. “Unless you have certain types of leadership really, it's — really it gets in the way.”
“If they have a tornado some place, let that state – Oklahoma is very competent, I love Oklahoma – 77 out of 77 districts,” he said of the state before launching into a victory lap over his election win. “And that’s never been done before I did it three times, I mean think of it, three times.”
Trump’s comments Wednesday came as new fires blazed through northern Los Angeles, sparking evacuation orders in a region already reeling from the effects of a wave of wildfires.
“It’s like a nuclear weapon went off in Los Angeles,” Trump said later in the interview.