The performing head of the Federal Emergency Administration Company was fired on Thursday amid the Trump administration’s ongoing assaults on the division tasked with dealing with catastrophe response. Cameron Hamilton’s termination was reportedly carried out by Deputy Homeland Safety Secretary Troy Edgar and longtime Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski, who’s serving as de facto chief of employees to Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem. No motive was given for Hamilton’s dismissal, in accordance with a White Home spokesperson.
Because the nation approaches the beginning of hurricane season in June, David Richardson, the assistant secretary for the Division of Homeland Safety’s Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Workplace, will now function performing head of FEMA. Richardson has zero expertise in catastrophe response.
Hamilton’s firing comes simply in the future after the previous Navy SEAL and State Division worker testified earlier than the Home Appropriations Committee. Throughout the Wednesday session, Hamilton mentioned, “I do not believe it is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency.”
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“Communities look to FEMA in their greatest times of need and it’s imperative that we remain ready to respond to those challenges,” he added.
President Donald Trump and the GOP used FEMA as a marketing campaign speaking level, spreading disinformation in regards to the federal response to main storms and flooding that hit North Carolina in September 2024. Trump has known as FEMA “no good” and mentioned that his administration would “recommend that FEMA go away and we pay directly.”
A person walks previous an space flooded by the results of Hurricane Helene close to the Swannanoa River on Sept. 27, 2024, in Asheville, North Carolina.
On the identical time, the Trump administration is reportedly planning reforms to federal catastrophe aid applications that may make it tougher for communities to qualify for help. In the meantime, states like North Carolina, the main focus of so lots of the Trump marketing campaign’s lies about FEMA, have continued to wrestle to get the funds already promised underneath the Biden administration.
Predictably, the folks most definitely to really feel the impression of a weakened FEMA are the identical individuals who have proven essentially the most help for Trump. In Arkansas, Republican Sens. John Boozman and Tom Cotton, together with Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, are already studying how a lot begging it could possibly take to get a number of the federal aid their residents want after tornadoes ravaged their state in March.
With FEMA anticipated to expire of catastrophe aid funds by this summer season, questions are mounting about whether or not a Republican-controlled Congress, beholden to a merciless Trump, will do something to fund it.
“I worry very much about what happens when natural disasters hit,” Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii informed reporters.
All of us ought to.
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