AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein
President Donald Trump called for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to be “TERMINATED” on Tuesday in an all-caps screed accusing the disaster relief agency of corruption.
Trump has made similar comments since taking office, but in his most recent post added that FEMA is “now under review and investigation” – presumably by Elon Musk’s DOGE. DOGE has rocked the U.S. government and sparked accusations of a “constitutional crisis” with its unilateral shutdown of USAID – an agency created and funded by federal statute.
“FEMA spent tens of millions of dollars in Democrat areas, disobeying orders, but left the people of North Carolina high and dry. It is now under review and investigation,” Trump posted, adding:
THE BIDEN RUN FEMA HAS BEEN A DISASTER. FEMA SHOULD BE TERMINATED! IT HAS BEEN SLOW AND TOTALLY INEFFECTIVE. INDIVIDUAL STATES SHOULD HANDLE STORMS, ETC., AS THEY COME. BIG SAVINGS, FAR MORE EFFICIENT!!!
According to recent reports, the three states that have collected the most in FEMA funding are Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. Axios reported in October that those red states’ “residents have received the lion’s share of FEMA direct assistance since 2015, per newly gathered data.”
Musk posted a claim on Monday that $59 million of FEMA funds had been spent last week on “luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants.” The claim was quickly debunked by experts and outlets like The New York Post.
“The @DOGE team just discovered that FEMA sent $59M LAST WEEK to luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants. Sending this money violated the law and is in gross insubordination to the President’s executive order. That money is meant for American disaster relief and instead is being spent on high end hotels for illegals! A clawback demand will be made today to recoup those funds,” posted Musk on X, who has changed his account name to “Harry Bolz.”
The CATO Institute’s David J. Bier explained what Musk got wrong, writing, “DOGE didn’t discover anything. Congress publicly voted on and appropriated $650 million for FEMA’s Shelter and Services program, and the money is transferred to FEMA from DHS money. The program shouldn’t exist, but that’s irrelevant. This is a waste of everyone’s time.”
__
