FEMA 3 8 25

---

SEE NOEM

SEE HURRICANE FLOODS CLIMAte chaos

SEE BLUE STATE ATTACKS

-=--==

Gabe Cohen and Andrew Kaczynski @ CNN: FEMA official who claimed he teleported to Waffle House ousted from agency, sources say

A top FEMA official who had drawn scrutiny for bizarre past remarks — including claiming he teleported to a Waffle House — has been pushed out of the agency, four sources tell CNN.

---

-=-=-=

AN 7 26

Trump has made little secret of his disinterest in addressing the needs of blue states that did not support him in 2024, and now, Politico reports that emails have exposed how he overruled his own agencies to punish those states when they needed relief.

In a Wednesday morning report, Politico cited "Emails between state and federal officials" that it had obtained, as well as over 150 documents, outlining Trump's habit of denying disaster relief to states he considers to be among his "political adversaries." Some of these denials came after his own government agencies determined that those states did indeed meet the thresholds for government aid.

"Emails between state and federal officials obtained by POLITICO along with more than 150 pages of documents submitted to FEMA by three states — New Jersey, Massachusetts and Rhode Island — provide new details about Trump’s low rate of approving disaster aid for his political adversaries," the report detailed. "He also denied a request by New York after administration officials verified that it had met federal standards for approval, according to state officials. Trump’s rejections came after regional offices of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and NOAA determined that the states met government thresholds for receiving aid following a record-breaking snowstorm in February."

"The Blizzard of 2026 certainly achieved a pinnacle ranking in the memories of those who experienced it and climatologically in the historical rankings of snowstorms," a NOAA report about Rhode Island, among those obtained by Politico, explained.

While presidents have the sole authority to approve or deny disaster aid, Politico noted that it is "highly unusual" for them to deny requests after these agencies have already "verified that damage estimates exceeded preestablished levels," citing conversations with officials from past administrations, both Democrat and Republican.

"I can’t think of a time a declaration was denied," one anonymous ex-FEMA official said, referring to states that met certain agency disaster damage standards.

Since the administration of George W. Bush, Politico explained, presidents had "approved all 69 state requests for snow assistance that met FEMA." The one exception was a 2016 request from New Mexico, "which was being investigated for mishandling FEMA funds."

"The emails and documents, which haven’t previously been reported, shed new light on Trump’s decisions to reject an overwhelming number of requests for disaster aid from Democratic-led states, even as he has approved nearly 90 percent of requests from states that are governed by members of his own party," the report added. "The revelations also offer a fuller picture of Trump’s tenure over the most partisan distribution of FEMA aid since the agency was created in 1979. Trump’s recent rejections involving snow diverge from the actions of other presidents, including Trump in his first term, who routinely approved similar requests from governors of opposing parties."

In response to questions about these denials, a FEMA spokesperson attacked the notion that federal aid should be dispersed for "regular operations like snow removal." Snow removal was previously "targeted for elimination" as a possible way to reduce spending at FEMA under Trump's second administration.

“Without that aid, our local governments will be stuck with the costs of an unprecedented snowstorm that didn’t care about political boundaries,” Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey said in a statement to Politico.

-=-=-=

ON THE MEDIA On the Media | American Emergency: the Movement to Kill FEMA | WNYC Studios

#2 WROTE PLAN TO DISMANTLE THO THERE 15 YRS BC HER JOB

PT 2

In the second part of OTM's miniseries American Emergency: The Movement to Kill FEMA, Micah Loewinger investigates how the war on terror left FEMA unprepared for Hurricane Katrina, one of the costliest disasters in U.S. history. Experts had warned about this kind of storm for years, but when it hit the agency only had one staffer on the ground: a PR guy named Marty Bahamonde. He became an unlikely hero when he testified in Congress against FEMA’s leader, recounting how his pleas to rescue survivors from the Superdome went unanswered and spurring radical reforms. Plus, we hear from Superdome survivor Chavon Allen, who was celebrating her 19th birthday when the hurricane landed, about the conditions she was subjected to.

Further reading:

“Some N.C. residents distrust FEMA so much they’re hesitant to apply for hurricane aid,”by Brianna Sacks
“How a conspiracy-fueled group got a foothold in this hurricane-battered town,” by Brianna Sacks

...

In media interviews, Jacklyn and her public affairs team tried to push back on each and every false narrative coming from the Trump campaign....

Trump:What's happened there is very bad. They're offering them $750 to people whose homes have been washed away.

This was also a lie. Jaclyn's team posted on social media that the 750 is just a bit of quick cash for survivors who can also apply for heftier home assistance -- up to $42,000 in a single year, and sometimes more.

Jaclyn Rothenberg:it's really unfortunate that there's misinformation because that discourages people from applying for assistance.

Part of the misinformation was rooted in a misunderstanding of how the agency functions. People often imagine that workers in FEMA gear are pulling people out of flooded homes, but FEMA primarily coordinates with other local agencies who do the life-saving work, providing supplies, manpower, and funding to support them.

Responding to all these false claims became an endless game of whack-a-mole for FEMA. Especially on X, now under the ownership of Elon Musk, who had a vested interest in seeing Trump re-elected.

Jaclyn Rothenberg:I remember Elon Musk tweeting that he was trying to send Starlinks down to North Carolina and that FEMA was hampering the efforts to set up Starlink internet devices.

Laura Ingraham on FOX:Musk says he received a note from a SpaceX engineer that said that the big issue is that FEMA is actively blocking shipments and seizing goods and services locally.

Jaclyn Rothenberg:Which was fundamentally false. I was putting out tweets constantly that we were in fact not blocking the shipments of Starlinks.

Several state and local officials also tried to dispel rumors that FEMA was blocking or confiscating third-party donations, but there was simply too much noise online.

Will Oremus:The reality is that our information environment isn't well designed for debunkings.

I spoke with Will Oremus, a technology reporter at the Washington Post, as these rumors were spreading in 2024.

Will Oremus:We worked with researchers from a nonprofit called the Institute for Strategic Dialogue who did a report on this – how many people were reached by 33 of the most viral falsehoods around Hurricane Helene. And then we just sort of, as a back of the envelope analysis looked at, well, what about FEMA's own tweets? How many people are they reaching? FEMA's most popular tweets since Hurricane Helene have reached 50 times fewer people than the false rumors.

The false rumors, the tweets about Jaclyn being a quote-unquote "traitor" reached a feverpitch about two weeks after Helene made landfall, culminating in that death threat and her decision to start laying low.

And Jaclyn wasn't the only person from FEMA who was targeted. Trolls tried to ‘swat’ Deanne Criswell, the agency’s leader. They made a hoax phone call to 911, attempting to send police to her rental property. Her deputy chief of staff received a similar threat. And Criswell’s chief of staff was doxxed, too.

Brianna Sacks:The threat level against workers was pretty unprecedented.

...

PT 4

[00:00] Micah interviews an anonymous FEMA worker who started a newsletter amid the chaos of Kristi Noem’s leadership at DHS. The goal of the online publication, called Alt-FEMA, was to get the truth out about the agency’s capacity — at a time when it was bleeding staff and experience. Its stated mission is to record “what is being dismantled: institutional knowledge, coordination capacity, and the ability to serve communities in crisis.”

[00:00] Micah explores the future of FEMA, and the administration's plans to reduce the role of the agency in responding to disasters. We hear from a veteran FEMA staffer, #2? MaryAnn Tierney, and a climate beat reporter at Grist, Jake Bittle, who wrestled with the proposed reforms. Micah also speaks to the Director of Emergency Management in Vermont, Eric Forand, and an emergency manager of a tribal nation on the West Coast about how diminished federal disaster funding could hurt their communities.

...News clip:President Trump has just announced that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is out of a job.

Alt-FEMA:As soon as I heard the news, I remember calling my co-worker and telling them, but as soon as they picked up the phone, they said, "The witch is dead. The witch is gone. She's out of here."

Micah:The past, present, and future of FEMA after this.

MICAH: From WNYC in New York this is On the Media. Brooke Gladstone is out this week. I’m Micah Loewinger.

SPEC OPS?

On March 27th 2025, Cameron Hamilton, Trump's interim top leader at FEMA, was meeting with some high ranking officials in an undisclosed secure location. He wouldn't tell me who he was with or where. Just that he had to run out abruptly.

Cameron Hamilton:I received a phone call that was, uh, very distressing

It was Corey Lewandowski, a special government employee, working closely with Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem. Lewandowski was ripping mad.

Cameron Hamilton:He proceeded to berate me over the fact that the media got ahold of a story and was running a topic that they felt was too sensitive and not fit for public domain.

Micah:The topic was abolishing FEMA.

Cameron Hamilton:Correct.

MICAH: A day earlier, Politico had published a story about a meeting, where Corey Lewandowski, Kristi Noem, and Cameron Hamilton had discussed whether to dismantle the agency and how they might do it. Lewandowski was now calling, because he believed Hamilton had leaked the story.

Cameron Hamilton:To which I responded. I'm not a liar. I'm not a leaker. I'm a man of honor. And if I tell you the truth, it's the truth.

Lewandowski didn't buy it.

Cameron Hamilton:I wanted to choke somebody. And that's exactly what came through my mind. [laughter]

Micah:Oh my God.

Cameron Hamilton:Just living in my flesh, doing some very un-Christian things to a certain person, but nonetheless…

Micah:A, a certain person being Mr. Lewandowski.

Cameron Hamilton:No, no, we're, yeah, I think you can read between the lines on that statement.

MICAH: After his call with Lewandowski, Hamilton got an email from a DHS official, asking him to submit to a voluntary polygraph test, as in, a lie detector. Hamilton told me he had nothing to hide but he was shocked and not sure how to respond. So he started calling his friends around Washington.

Cameron Hamilton:I called people in the White House. I called people in Congress, people in the Senate. My first question is, is this normal? I've never encountered such unprofessionalism ever in my life. To which unanimously their perspective was, I've never seen something like this. And then the second argument that I had received from others was, do I resign in protest or do I do this?Overwhelmingly the advice was, please do not resign. They will try to destroy you if you do. Publicly. So they said the honorable thing to do is to take the test, pass it, and then look 'em in the face and remind them that you're not a liar. So that's what I chose to do.

---

am 6 26

President Donald Trump’s decision to gut America’s emergency disaster response organization has left the United States vulnerable to upcoming natural disasters — and now Trump is scrambling, likely too late, to fix his problem.

Describing the decision of his past Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem, to withhold billions in money from FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency), CNN’s Gabe Cohen reported that “Vice President JD Vance suggested it was FEMA’s inability to get money out the door that truly did her in. By the end of last year, FEMA was sitting on more than $15 billion in unspent funds, according to sources and internal figures reviewed by CNN. Lawmakers across the country, including many Republicans, were left fuming after months of asking for disaster money that had been awarded yet still awaited Noem’s signature.”

Cohen added that “during her 13 months running DHS, Noem, along with her de facto chief of staff Corey Lewandowski, waged war on FEMA, throttling operations, stalling payments, and driving out most of the senior leadership and by one count roughly 20% of the workforce. Amid the havoc, multiple sources told CNN the agency failed to make critical payments — from basic utilities to security operators that protect dangerous materials like anthrax.”

Realizing that America is now uniquely vulnerable because the upcoming summer will likely bring with it natural disasters from wildfires to tropical storms, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is reportedly working frantically to reverse many of the budget cuts and bureaucratic red tape that Noem had implemented.

“Court records in a separate lawsuit show DHS coordinated much of the overhaul over dozens of chats on the messaging app Signal, some of which have been wiped, with lawyers raising concerns that evidence was destroyed,” Cohen reported. “In a remarkable turnaround, Trump has tapped Cameron Hamilton to lead FEMA — for the second time. In May 2025, Hamilton, a former Navy SEAL, was fired from his acting role atop the agency after telling lawmakers he didn’t support the administration’s plans to abolish FEMA. His exit accelerated an already chaotic effort to dismantle the agency — just as his return underscores the level of damage control the White House is now attempting.”

As one DHS official told Cohen about Hamilton, “If you’d asked me 11 months ago, I would have said it’s more likely we deport him than he gets that job.”

Later Cohen reported how “in May 2025, CNN reported that an internal review found FEMA was ‘not ready’ for hurricane season. Hamilton pushed back on efforts to degrade the agency but by then, plans to oust him were already in the works.”

He added, “Just hours before Hamilton was set to testify on Capitol Hill, he learned security was preparing to cut off his badge access. DHS told him it was a mistake; Hamilton believed his removal was imminent, three sources said.”

Last year it was reported that Noem vowed to “eliminate” FEMA, with Trump laying off hundreds of staff that focused on resilience and preparedness. At the time, this was reportedly motivated in large part by the administration’s determination to downplay the effects of man-made climate change. The president also signed an executive order requiring state and local governments to “play a more active and significant role in national resilience and preparedness” and ordered agencies to “streamline” their efforts to address disasters.

===

---

AN 3 26

Although Missouri is a red state — Donald Trump carried Missouri by 18 percent in 2024 compared to roughly 14 percent in Texas — its largest city, St. Louis, is a Democratic stronghold. Tensions have long existed between St. Louis' Democrat-dominated city government and Missouri's GOP-controlled state government in Jefferson City, and those tensions escalated when Donald Trump became the Republican Party's most influential figure.

St. Louis-based journalist Devin Thomas O'Shea describes the growing tensions between that city and Missouri Republicans in an article published on March 20.

Those tensions, according to O'Shea, are underscored by Republican responses to a May 2025 tornado that killed five people in the St. Louis and inflicted considerable damage.

"In St. Louis, as The Wall Street Journal pointed out, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been antagonistic to recovery efforts," O'Shea explains. "Neither the president nor this last year's Homeland Security director, Kristi Noem, believe that FEMA should exist. Some Senate Democrats believe Noem's pausing and delaying FEMA payments violated federal law, but the effect is that Missouri has been added to a growing list — alongside North Carolina after Hurricane Helene — of states cut loose, left to rebuild on their own."

O'Shea continues, "Noem cut FEMA's workforce by thousands to achieve this result, and if St. Louis is a test case for contemporary climate disasters, the verdict is in: You're on your own."

St. Louis City Mayor Cara Spencer, according to O'Shea, "admits that things have moved too slowly" with tornado recovery efforts "and that money has not reached storm victims."

"While some Missouri Republicans claim they are upset about FEMA's dysfunction, they are also using the tornado recovery to lash St. Louis," O'Shea notes. "This year, the GOP plans to bankrupt the city. This is not an exaggeration — in January, the Missouri Legislature turned $100 million in relief into a weapon to compel St. Louis to enact the budget policy of eliminating the earnings tax, a prime source of city revenue. It's also not an exaggeration to say that the Missouri State Legislature spent last year moving forward with the re-invasion of the City of St. Louis."

O'Shea adds, "The Republican-controlled state spends much of its legislative time trying to overturn voter referendums. State-wide, Missourians approve abortion, vote in favor of increasing the minimum wage, and reject right-to-work legislation. Meanwhile, Missouri lawmakers go to work to criminalize abortion, lower the minimum wage, and get right-to-work back on the ballot. In March 2025, three months before the tornado, Gov. Mike Kehoe rejected a 2012 voter referendum that granted local control of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department (STLPD) to the City of St. Louis."

---

Right-wing media miss the mark on explaining wildfire recovery in Los Angeles

The Trump administration has denied Los Angeles $34 billion in disaster relief

Special ProgramsClimate & Energy

Written by Ilana Berger

:{Published 02/11/26

Right-wing media are echoing a recent executive order from President Donald Trump pinning the blame for Los Angeles’ delayed recovery from last year’s wildfires on the state and local government, specifically construction permitting holdups. But the order, which the White House says will speed up permitting processes, fails to address key factors, like unpaid insurance claims and insufficient funding. The coverage omits how Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s mismanagement is hindering disaster response and recovery.

Experts are skeptical about whether federal agencies even have the authority to implement the executive order, and survivors say a lack of access to money to fund construction is more of a barrier to rebuilding than permitting. Meanwhile, DHS has reportedly created a “$17 billion bottleneck” that is impeding federal disaster response, and the administration denied Los Angeles $34 billion in disaster relief.

## Trump issued an executive order that cuts through permitting requirements, but he might not have the authority, and experts say it doesn’t address Los Angeles’ root problems

- Trump’s order directs the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Small Business Administration to find ways to “preempt State or local permitting processes, and other similar pre-approval requirements, that each agency has found to have unduly impeded the timely use of Federal emergency-relief funds.”The White House wrote that it would implement a system where builders would “self-certify to a Federal designee from each agency that they have complied with all applicable substantive State and local health and safety standards with respect to the structure proposed to be rebuilt using Federal emergency-relief funds.” Notably, LA County already launched a self-certification program back in May 2025 “to fast-track reconstruction in fire-scarred neighborhoods.” WhiteHouse.gov, [_{1/27/26}_; Pasadena Now, 5/8/25]

- Trump might not have the legal power to implement the order in the first place. “Legal experts and state officials have questioned whether federal agencies have the statutory authority to override local building codes or land-use laws,” reported FOX 11. Daniel Farber, the faculty director of the Center for Law Energy & Environment at University of California, Berkeley, told Politico “This is completely unprecedented in terms of the history of federal disaster aid,” adding, “They’re gonna have a hard time making this stand up in court.” The move may violate the 10th Amendment and legal precedents which have been used to “argue against the federal government wresting away control of regulations, such as land-use rules, that are traditionally held by state and local government.” FOX 11, [_{1/27/26}_; Politico, 1/27/26]

- Some survivors and city officials say more money is what’s needed most.Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, a Republican, responded to Trump’s executive order, saying that while she welcomes “any effort to responsibly accelerate rebuilding,” the county “already has a local self-certification process to help expedite rebuilding.” She continued, “The most urgent need in the Altadena region is financially driven. Families lack the capital to kick start or continue their rebuilding plans.” Joy Chen, executive director of the Eaton Fire Survivors Network, said that “the number one barrier to Eaton and Palisades fire survivors right now is money.” LACounty.gov, [_{1/27/26}_; The Associated Press, 1/28/26]

- A McKinsey report recommending how LA could accelerate recovery is largely inconsistent with Trump’s new executive order, which focuses solely on permitting.The report recommended that local governments optimize their own systems based on previous successes, identifying “gaps between insurance payouts and rebuilding costs” as “significant challenges.” The firm also pointed out that “Los Angeles has built momentum in permitting,” has already adopted multiple processes to accelerate rebuilding, and in striving to “ensure long-term community health and resilience, speed must be balanced with safety, compliance, and sustainability.” McKinsey & Company, [_{1/22/26}_]

:{:{## Right-wing media’s coverage of the fires in L.A. was misleading from the start.}:

Right-wing media insisted that climate change had nothing to do with the wildfires, despite the clear connection, and instead blamed forest mismanagement and water policies. In reality, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s water policies have no relationship to the LA fires or low water pressure in fire hydrants, debunking another popular narrative on the right, while the conditions driving the fires and their clear connections to climate change were dismissed. PBS News, [_{8/9/21;}_Media Matters, 1/10/25, 1/10/25, 1/15/25]

- As The New York Times correctly observed, “a megadrought” driven by climate change “has sapped water supplies, ravaged farms and ranches, and fueled wildfires across the American Southwest for going on 25 years.” The latest U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report found with “high confidence” that anthropogenic “warming over land drives an increase in … the severity of droughts.” The New York Times [_{7/16/25}_; United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 8/9/21]

## Right-wing media praised Trump for the new executive order and attacked California Democrats, assigning blame just like they did when the fires occurred

- The California Post, the Murdoch-owned sister tabloid to the New York Post, featured the executive order in an “exclusive” interview with Trump on January 27, the day after the paper launched.“I want to see if we can take over the city and state and just give the people their permits they want to build,” the president said. The article lauded Trump for allowing “the federal government to maneuver around the needless obstacles imposed by Democratic leaders” and blamed “thumb-twiddling California Democrats” for delays in rebuilding. California Post, [1/27/26; New York Post, 1/5/26]

- :{In an interview wit:{h Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler, Breitbart}: editor-in-chief Alex Marlow said that “only a fraction” of small business loans have been dispersed to victims in California, and blamed “city permitting backlogs,” calling them “a really supreme outrage.” During the interview, Loeffler said that the executive order is “not a performative half measure, which is what seems to be going on locally. This is full-on permitting and rebuilding right now.” :{Salem:(style="background-color:#ffff00ff"):}: News Channel, *The Alex Marlow Show*, [2/4/26]}:

- Fox News host Sean Hannity complained that a recent profile of Gavin Newsom in Vogue “left out a number of important topics” like the LA wildfires and “why people can’t get a building permit.” He added that Newsom is a “full-time Tweety bird podcaster” but a “never-time governor” who is “MIA always.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [2/3/26]

- Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo interviewed Loeffler, who said, “President Trump is saving Californians from failed local leadership — state leadership, Gavin Newsom — who have failed to help the residents rebuild.” Bartiromo said the executive order addresses “permitting delays which have stalled local rebuilding efforts in Los Angeles for over a year.” Loeffler credited Trump for having “sped disaster recovery, and then we sped disaster relief in the form of small business loans, 12,000 of them, $3.2 billion dollars. What we found out is they have delayed permitting, the stalling, the bureaucracy that has crowded out that ability to rebuild. So President Trump is again leading for California to rebuild.” Fox Business, *Mornings with Maria*, [1/30/26]

- Fox host Jesse Watters said “Trump is doing what Newsom couldn’t” by signing the executive order targeted at LA because “Democrats let it burn and would not rebuild.”Watters said, “Trump is doing what Newsom couldn’t — grabbing a shovel. [President] 47 signed an executive order for the feds to fast-track rebuilding LA after Democrats let it burn and would not rebuild. If Newsom really wants the Oval, he might want to fireproof his excuses.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [1/28/26]

- Hannity said that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin would be in charge of implementing the order “as part of the administration's commitment to facilitating a swift recovery” and claimed that Newsom “can't get people their building permits and help them and assist them and have insurance companies pay homeowners.” Hannity called the 2025 wildfires “predictable” and blamed “empty hydrants, empty reservoirs.” [Fox News,

Hannity, 1/28/26]

- Fox Business host Stuart Varney asked real estate broker Josh Altman if Trump could “fix the problem in Los Angeles” — Altman replied “absolutely” because last year Trump “accomplished in six weeks what the state and local level says were going to take six months to the year.”Fox Business,*Varney & Co.*, [1/28/26]

- Newsmax anchors Bob Brooks and Katrina Szish spoke with former California Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado, who blamed Newsom for slow wildfire recovery because his administration spent money on “homelessness,” which had “zero support,” and “unemployment fraud” instead. Maldonado said Newsom’s recovery efforts are “useless” and Trump is the one “trying to move this forward and help the people of California.” Newsmax, *American Agenda*, [1/28/26]

- In the same interview, former Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva told Newsmax viewers that California wants to take “that $34 billion prize coming from the feds, they want to feed it into their bureaucratic mess, and only a trickle of it, if ever, will get down to the survivors.”He added that Trump is “trying to bypass that whole mess.” Newsmax, *American Agenda*, [1/28/26]

## Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s mismanagement is slowing recovery from natural disasters and preventing communities from becoming more resilient in the future

- In the order, Trump requested an audit of a $3 billion grant program which, according to FEMA's website, “provides funding to state, local, tribal and territorial governments to develop hazard mitigation plans and rebuild in ways that reduce or mitigate future disaster losses in their communities.” The order directs FEMA head Karen Evans, the third acting administrator during Trump’s second term, to “make administrative determinations” with the possibility of “imposing future grant conditions” and even making communities return money they were previously awarded. No new funds for this Hazard Mitigation Grant Program have been awarded to any state since March 2025, according to PBS. Federal Emergency Management Agency, accessed [_{2/4/26}_; WhiteHouse.gov, 1/27/26; PBS News, 1/28/26; CNN, 11/24/25]

- According to The New York Times, Noem’s requirement for her office to personally review and approve all FEMA expenditures exceeding $100,000 has created “a $17 billion bottleneck.”This includes millions in delayed aid to one Iowa town where “huge floods damaged or destroyed 500 homes” in June 2024. The city administrator says its “annual budget is typically less than $10 million, so the city has had to borrow $19 million to make ends meet, at a cost of $1,800 in daily interest that is not eligible for FEMA reimbursement.” The New York Times, [_{1/27/25}_]

- This same review process reportedly delayed response to the catastrophic Texas flooding in July 2025. According to CNN: “Texas did request aerial imagery from FEMA to aid search and rescue operations, a source told CNN, but that was delayed as it awaited Noem’s approval for the necessary contract. FEMA staff have also been answering phones at a disaster call center, where, according to one agency official, callers have faced longer wait times as the agency awaited Noem’s approval for a contract to bring in additional support staff.” CNN, [_{7/10/25}_]

- In 2025, FEMA cut approximately 20% of its staff, including “some of its most experienced and knowledgeable leaders” — this year the reductions could reportedly impact 50% of staff. On January 2, CNN reported: “The cuts target FEMA’s Cadre of On-Call Response and Recovery (CORE) teams, which form the backbone of the agency’s operations during and after a disaster, and could be just the beginning of a larger effort by Secretary Kristi Noem and the Department of Homeland Security to shrink FEMA. … CORE employees make up about 40% of FEMA’s workforce — over 8,000 people — working full-time hours on temporary contracts. Several thousand of these workers will see their contracts end in 2026.” Additionally CNN reported that FEMA leaders were told that the goal is to cut staff by over 50% by the next fiscal year, which begins in October. AccuWeather, [_{4/24/25}_; CNN, 1/2/26, 1/5/26]

- Under Noem, the Trump administration has hurt national disaster preparedness by installing inexperienced leaders.Trump’s initial acting FEMA administrator was fired in May 2025 after testifying that the agency shouldn’t be abolished. He was replaced by David Richardson, who had no emergency management experience, according to CNBC. In early June, Reuters reported that Richardson had told staff he didn’t know that the United States had a hurricane season. Staff said they were unsure whether Richardson was joking, and he resigned in November. The New York Times, [_{6/12/25}_; CBS News, 6/13/25; Politico, 5/8/25, 11/17/25; CNBC, 6/2/25]

- Program and staff reductions along with public statements from Noem suggesting that FEMA would be eliminated have reportedly left the agency ill-prepared for extreme weather. In May 2025 — just weeks before the start of the Atlantic hurricane season and peak extreme weather — CNN obtained an internal memo warning that FEMA was “not ready” for hurricane season. According to the internal assessment, preparations for hurricane season have been “derailed” and issues abounded at the agency, “including a general uncertainty around its mission, lack of coordination with states and other federal agencies, low morale and new red tape that will likely slow responses.” CNN, [_{5/15/25}_]

- Further crippling the agency, the Department of Homeland Security has involuntarily reassigned dozens of FEMA staff to support Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation efforts.A letter to Congress arguing that FEMA’s leadership has hindered its ability to effectively manage emergencies signed by about 180 agency employees “points to the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act, which states that transfers are prohibited ‘except for details or assignments that do not reduce the capability of the Agency to perform its missions.’ The reassignments to help ICE, employees say, do just that.” The Washington Post, [_{8/6/25}_, 8/25/25]

- Rollbacks on flood risk standards and canceled preparedness programs have put communities at greater risk.On his first day in office, Trump revoked federal flood protections which require federally funded infrastructure projects to comply with design requirements that harden them against flood risks. “The goal of the standards were not only to protect human lives and homes, but also to save taxpayer money, preventing a never-ending cycle of destroy-rebuild-repeat,” Truthout reported. In April 2025, Trump canceled a FEMA program started during his first term in 2018 that allocated billions of dollars in disaster preparedness grants to “help local, state and tribal governments protect residents from future disasters such as floods, wildfires, tornadoes and hurricanes,” NPR explained. Even some Republicans have asked Trump to reconsider the cuts because, as Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) said, the program providing the grants “protects families and saves taxpayer dollars in the long-run. That’s efficient in my book.” Truthout, [_{7/12/25}_; NPR, 5/1/25; Cassidy.Senate.gov, 4/10/25]

MMA //

### Right-wing media personalities seize on arson charge to falsely deny the role of climate change in Palisades Fire

:{10/10/25

### Fox News is mostly silent on Trump's ill-advised and dangerous release of water in California after weeks of attacking the state’s water policies

:{02/07/25

### Trump’s executive order on California water policy canonized right-wing media misinformation about the LA fires

01/24/2

---

MMA

Fox misleadingly claimed that a government shutdown would impede relief for winter storms, glossing over the real threat to disaster-stricken communities

Disaster management experts say that the agency has enough funding to support current relief efforts – but ongoing aid has been held up by Kristi Noem’s “$17 billion bottleneck”

Special ProgramsClimate & Energy

Written by Allison Fisher

Published 02/03/26

Fox personalities criticized Democratic efforts to implement stricter rules for the Department of Homeland Security after federal immigration agents killed two Minnesotans, saying the seemingly temporary shutdown Democrats have triggered will inhibit disaster relief. But they're glossing over the real threat to disaster aid, which is the “$17 billion bottleneck” Secretary Kristi Noem has caused at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The Associated Press reported that disaster management experts and former FEMA officials said that the agency has enough funding — $7 billion to $8 billion — to support current relief efforts even in the event of a government shutdown.

While Fox personalities are expressing concern about the fate of FEMA, they’re glossing over the real issues impeding federal disaster response, including staff and program cuts along with Noem’s requirement that any expenses over $100,000 be personally approved by her office.

The network’s approach is part of an ongoing trend since Trump took office — a particularly cynical one given how critical the network has been of disaster response under Democratic leadership.

## Fox News and Fox Business misleadingly suggest that a government shutdown will hinder disaster funding for those impacted by winter storms

- Over a chyron about the “DC standoff over DHS funding,” Fox Business’ Cheryl Casone said, “You've also got FEMA funding. So that complicates, in particular when you have a massive snowstorm that the northeast is trying to dig out of.” Fox Business, *Mornings with Maria Bartiromo*, [1/27/26]

- Fox News host Brian Kilmeade: “So they are talking about to deprive ICE of money, they're not going to fund the DHS, which means no FEMA, which means a government shutdown. … By the way, a snowstorm, not a good time to stop emergency funding for DHS.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [1/27/26]

- Fox News host Harris Faulkner in a segment about the looming shutdown: “Maybe they don't actually live here, those Democrat leaders. Because if you were here the last few days, you’re going to need some FEMA money. Like what are they even thinking right now?”Fox News, *Faulkner Focus*, [1/27/26]

- Fox Business’ Larry Kudlow: “There's already been money, plenty of money, I think some $75 billion has been appropriated to DHS for immigration purposes. … They’re not taking money away from the immigration side. They’re taking money away from FEMA in the middle of all of these national snowstorms and power outages. That's just the stupidest damn thing I ever heard.” Fox Business, *Kudlow*, [1/27/26]

- Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) asked Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo, “Why would you defund FEMA in the middle of an event that has wreaked havoc on 200 million Americans?”Blackburn said: “I’ve heard from people as early as 4:30 this morning again who are being told it is going to be two weeks until power is restored. And that is all in the Nashville area. And these — why would you defund FEMA in the middle of an event that has wreaked havoc and 200 million Americans have been affected by this?” Fox Business, *Mornings with Maria Bartiromo*, [1/29/26]

- Fox News anchor Shannon Bream onOutnumbered: “If you delay this bill, this DHS bill, you’re talking about FEMA, you’re talking about TSA, you’re talking about all of these things in the middle of possibly another winter storm hitting the East Coast.”Bream added, “It's a really big calculation Democrats have to make about what they are going to do. They are not going to stop ICE.” Fox News, *Outnumbered*, [1/29/26]

- Fox Business’ Elizabeth MacDonald: “There’s another deadly winter storm hitting the East Coast. We need FEMA. FEMA is going to get hit in the shutdown. They’re going to furlough 4,000, 5,000 people.” MacDonald added, “Seventy-three people died in the last winter storm, hundreds of thousands without power still.” In fact, FEMA employees do not get furloughed in the event of a government shutdown. Fox Business, *The Evening Edit*, [1/29/26; Reuters, 10/7/25]

- Fox contributor Lisa Boothe onThe Big Weekend Show: “What Democrats would effectively be doing is putting FEMA in a dangerous position at a time, by the way, when we just had these big ice and snow storms and lives were literally at risk. That's what they would be putting in harm's way, the American people.” Fox News, *The Big Weekend Show*, [1/31/26]

## Secretary Kristi Noem’s mismanagement of FEMA and Trump administration policies are hampering relief to disaster-stricken communities

- According to the New York Times, as of January 2026, Kristi Noem’s requirement for her office to personally review and approve all FEMA expenditures exceeding $100,000 has created a $17 billion bottleneck.This includes millions in delayed aid to one Iowa town where “huge floods damaged or destroyed 500 homes” in June 2024. The New York Times, [1/27/25]

- This same review process reportedly delayed response to the catastrophic Texas flooding in July. According to The New Republic: “Texas’s request for aerial imagery to help with search and rescue efforts was also ‘delayed as it awaited Noem’s approval for the necessary contract,’ and, at a FEMA-manned disaster call center, ‘callers have faced longer wait times as the agency awaited Noem’s approval for a contract to bring in additional support staff.’” According to The New York Times, “The Federal Emergency Management Agency did not answer nearly two-thirds of calls to its disaster assistance line … because the agency had fired hundreds of contractors at call centers.” Media Matters, [7/17/26; The New Republic, 7/10/25; The New York Times, 7/11/25]

- In 2025, FEMA cut approximately 20% of its staff, including “some of its most experienced and knowledgeable leaders.” This year the reductions could impact 50% of staff. CNN reported that: “CORE employees make up about 40% of FEMA’s workforce — over 8,000 people — working full-time hours on temporary contracts. Several thousand of these workers will see their contracts end in 2026.” Additional CNN reporting showed that FEMA leaders were told that by the next fiscal year, the goal is to cut staff by over 50%. AccuWeather, [4/24/25; CNN, 1/2/26; CNN, 1/5/26]

- Under Noem, the Trump administration has hurt national disaster preparedness by installing inexperienced leaders. FEMA’s initial acting administrator was fired after testifying that the agency shouldn’t be abolished. He was replaced by David Richardson, who had no emergency management experience, according to CNBC. In early June, Reuters reported that Richardson had told staff he didn’t know that the United States had a hurricane season. Staff said they were unsure whether Richardson was joking. Richardson resigned in November. The New York Times, [6/12/25; CBS News, 6/13/25; Politico, 5/8/25; CNBC, 6/2/25; Politico 11/17/26]

- Program and staff reductions along with public statements from Noem suggesting that FEMA would be eliminated have reportedly left the agency ill-prepared for extreme weather. In May — just weeks before the start of the Atlantic hurricane season and peak extreme weather — CNN obtained an internal memo warning that FEMA was “not ready” for hurricane season. According to the internal assessment, preparations for hurricane season have been “derailed” and issues abounded at the agency, “including a general uncertainty around its mission, lack of coordination with states and other federal agencies, low morale and new red tape that will likely slow responses.” CNN, [5/15/25]

- Further crippling the agency, the Department of Homeland Security has involuntarily reassigned dozens of FEMA staff to support Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation efforts. A letter to Congress arguing that FEMA’s leadership has hindered its ability to effectively manage emergencies signed by about 180 agency employees “points to the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act, which states that transfers are prohibited ‘except for details or assignments that do not reduce the capability of the Agency to perform its missions.’ The reassignments to help ICE, employees say, do just that.” The Washington Post, [8/6/25; 8/25/25]

- :{Rollbacks on flood risk standards and canceled preparedness programs have put communities at greater risk. On his first day in office, Donald Trump revoked federal flood protections which require federally funded infrastructure projects to comply with design requirements that harden them against flood risks. “The goal of the standards were not only to protect human lives and homes, but also to save taxpayer money, preventing a never-ending cycle of destroy-rebuild-repeat,” Truthout reported.

In April, Trump canceled a FEMA program that allocated billions of dollars in disaster preparedness grants to “help local, state and tribal governments protect residents from future disasters such as floods, wildfires, tornadoes and hurricanes,” NPR explained. Even some Republicans like Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) have asked Trump to reconsider the cuts because, as Cassidy said, the program providing the grants “protects families and saves taxpayer dollars in the long-run. That’s efficient in my book.” Truthout, [7/12/25; NPR, 5/1/25; Cassidy.Senate.gov, 4/10/25]}:

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RWW

12/10/2025

Kyle Mantyla

Brianna Sacks @ The Washington Pos**t: Election denier tapped for FEMA leadership role

Gregg Phillips, who claimed that millions of “noncitizens” voted illegally in the 2016 election, will head FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery.

Isaac Stanley-Becker @ The Atlantic: USAID Hired the Right-Wing Influencer Responsible for Its Decimation

Mike Benz was brought aboard to find evidence for his claims that the agency is secretly a spy operation.

Steve Benen @ The Maddow Blog: Democrats score big wins in Florida and Georgia, as the GOP’s election woes continue

The more Donald Trump and his party pretend they don’t have an electoral problem, the more Republicans lose winnable elections.

Megan Twohey and Isabella Kwai @ The New York Times: How a Manosphere Star Accused of Rape and Trafficking Was Freed

Barred from leaving Romania, Andrew Tate courted powerful figures on the American right, from Tucker Carlson to Barron Trump. Then an extraordinary order let him go.

Michael Luciano @ Mediaite: Trump Suggests It’s ‘Treasonous’ To Report He’s in Bad Physical Shape

President Donald Trump slammed The New York Times and unnamed “some others” for reporting unfavorably about the 79-year-old’s health.

Steven Monacelli @ The Barbed Wire: He’s an Unapologetic Fascist Who ‘Despises’ Democracy. He Still Wants You to Vote for Him.

The court-appointed public defender in North Texas was once leader of the Proud Boys, has posted racist threats online, and sports a white nationalist tattoo. Now he wants to represent you.

---

GREG A greggaphillips 404 NO WAYBACK

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an 12 9 25

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AN 12 25

As 2025 draws to a close, the departure of the beleaguered acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, David Richardson, caps a tumultuous year for FEMA. In January, President Donald Trump took office and vowed to abolish the department. Though the administration subsequently slow-walked that proposal, its government-wide staffing cuts have led to a nearly 10 percent reduction in FEMA’s workforce since January. Now it faces a long-awaited report issued by a review council, commissioned by the president and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, just as a new interim FEMA chief prepares to take the reins in December.

Although some expected the review council to recommend further cuts or try to fulfill the president’s suggestion of disbanding FEMA entirely, a leaked draft of the report, obtained by the New York Times, recommends preserving the agency. “There’s been a need for emergency management reform for a while,” said Jeffrey Schlegelmilch, a professor at the Columbia Climate School and the director of its National Center for Disaster Preparedness. “But the wrecking balls came in before there was a blueprint for what to do.”

The Trump administration’s first pick to lead FEMA, Cameron Hamilton, was fired after telling Congress that the agency should not be eliminated. Richardson was tapped to replace him, despite a lack of emergency management experience; he reportedly told staff members he had been unaware the United States had a hurricane season, although he later claimed to be joking.

“There’s been a lot of mistrust with expertise in this administration,” said Schlegelmilch, when asked why Richardson was chosen as FEMA administrator.

Richardson’s first test in the national spotlight came in early July, when devastating floods struck Central Texas, killing 135 people. A month earlier, Noem had instituted a new rule requiring her personal sign-off on any FEMA expenditures over $100,000. That meant that, in order to get aid to the region, FEMA officials needed Richardson to get Noem’s approval. But according to reporting from the Washington Post, Richardson made a habit of not checking his phone outside of traditional working hours. This made it a challenge to contact him when the floods hit over the July 4 holiday weekend. As a result, it took over three days for Noem to sign off on expenses for swiftwater rescue teams. It was also later reported that nearly two-thirds of calls to FEMA’s emergency assistance line went unanswered during the floods, because a critical call center was severely understaffed.

A final recommendation on suggested FEMA reforms will arrive by the end of the year, but a leaked draft report supports preserving the agency and restoring it to a cabinet-level agency that reports directly to the president, rather than to the Department of Homeland Security, where it’s been housed since 2003. This has been a longtime goal pursued by emergency management experts, according to Schlegelmilch, because it would give the department more autonomy, reduce red tape, and hopefully improve the speed and efficacy of disaster response in general. A bipartisan bill called the FEMA Act of 2025, which would elevate the department to a cabinet-level agency, was introduced in Congress in July, but it’s stalled in committee.

How the administration will receive the final report from the task force is uncertain, but FEMA’s new interim director, Karen Evans, may not bring much stability to the agency. Although Evans has some emergency management experience, it is largely in cybersecurity rather than disaster response, and the Trump administration’s disinterest in appointing a permanent director may bode poorly for the agency’s long-term future.

“This is the third acting FEMA administrator within a year,” said Shana Udvardy, senior climate resilience policy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “What the Trump administration is doing is side-stepping the Senate confirmation process for a FEMA administrator, someone we just desperately need in place, given how turbulent it’s been over the past year.”

This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/politics/trump-fema-david-richardson-karen-evans/.

Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org

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mma

### Fox News mostly ignored warnings from FEMA employees that Trump is setting the stage for a “disaster on the level of Hurricane Katrina”

09/04/25 3:37 PM EDT

### National TV news coverage of Hurricane Katrina’s 20th anniversary was solemn and respectful but largely elided the structural inequalities the storm exposed

09/04/25

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an 8 25

Corey Lewandowski — former Trump campaign manager turned senior adviser at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — is reportedly playing gatekeeper for contracts over $100,000, creating a vortex of delays.

Politico reported Wednesday, citing insiders from the administration and FEMA, that rather than ushering contracts straight to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s desk, they are funneled through Lewandowski. He is said to hold veto power over these substantial agreements.

One FEMA official described this bottleneck as "insane" in their comment to Politico, pointing to a new DHS protocol that requires manual reviews of even routine contracts — slowing operations to a crawl.

“Corey is part of the problem,” said one administration official. “It doesn’t matter how quickly we get it there; it doesn’t just go straight to her desk.”

IFrame Content

According to the report, the extra layer of scrutiny stems from Noem’s initiative aiming to stem wasteful spending.

Critics argue, however, that it's instead bogging down the agency — risking delayed deployment of billions in immigration enforcement funds and frustrating office workflows. Even relatively modest contracts can take weeks to get approved, per the report.

One insider told the outlet: "We’ll see if that frustrates members of Congress who voted for the Big Beautiful Bill.”

Though officially a “special governmental employee” limited to 130 unpaid days per year, Lewandowski’s involvement appears far more substantial. Sources note frequent appearances with Noem at events and on travel, describing him as her de facto chief of staff. Some officials question whether his days at DHS are being properly documented.

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an 8 25

Feds still withholding millions in funds for North Carolina as Hurricane Erin bears down

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an 8 25

In the southernmost town in Maryland, residents who backed President Donald Trump in the 2024 election are now grappling with the consequences of his administration’s decision to cancel a major FEMA flood‑relief program.

NBC Washington published a report Thursday spotlighting former businesses now claimed by flooding.

Mayor Darlene Taylor pointed to vacant storefronts while speaking with NBC. “That was Subway and it used to have to close all the time because of floods or even high tides,” she said, nodding to a windowless shell of a building.

She added: “There’s nothing in Crisfield that’s not touched by our flooding issue.”

IFrame Content

The report noted that Taylor leads a shrinking seaside town battling relentless flooding from the Chesapeake Bay and other climate‑related threats.

Last year, FEMA awarded a $36 million grant through its Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program to flood‑proof Crisfield. But in April, the Trump administration abruptly terminated the BRIC program — canceling applications from 2020‑2023 and halting future awards.

Due to this development, Taylor and other townspeople are forced to scramble for alternatives — to “get it back.”

Records show a majority of voters in the town supported Trump in 2024, per the report.

“In an article that someone sent to me, it says, ‘Crisfield: Maryland’s Trumpiest city,” Taylor told NBC.

Taylor’s efforts to secure federal flood relief began early in her tenure — she took office in 2022 amid mounting concern from residents about rising water levels. With Crisfield only a few feet above sea level, flooding has hollowed out the local economy and left residents increasingly vulnerable.

When asked how voters felt about the canceled funding, despite their ideological leanings, Taylor noted, “People are tied to their philosophies and ideologies. So, they may see rationales in one way or another, but for me, I believe that that should play in our favor.”

Francis Martinez Myers, a member of of the Greater Crisfield Action Coalition, told NBC: “I feel like the government, the administration turned their back on the community."