President Donald Trump has issued an executive order that may lead to the dissolution of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
This order, announced on Sunday night, calls for the establishment of a task force tasked with examining the agency and proposing transformative solutions.
The president will personally select the members of the Council Review, which is expected to deliver a final report within a six-month timeframe.
However, Trump has previously indicated his true intentions regarding the federal emergency response organization.
“FEMA has proven to be a catastrophe. I believe we should recommend that FEMA be disbanded,” he remarked to an audience in North Carolina last Friday.
During his visit to regions affected by hurricanes in North Carolina and areas devastated by fires in Los Angeles, he suggested that states should be allocated funding to manage emergencies independently.
The recent wildfires that ravaged thousands of structures in Los Angeles this month engulfed more than 40,000 acres and displaced around 200,000 residents from their homes.
At the same time, Hurricane Helene claimed the lives of over 100 individuals in North Carolina alone.
FEMA, which employs approximately 20,000 personnel, has faced severe criticism from Trump during his campaign for what he describes as its inadequate management of disaster relief funds.
The agency last received a substantial $29 billion from Congress in December to support relief initiatives, but Trump has proposed that this funding be sent directly to states—reflecting a strategy highlighted in the controversial Project 2025 document released prior to the election.
The president has not appointed anyone to lead the agency yet; instead, former NAVY SEAL Cam Hamilton is temporarily filling the role and has informed his team that the agency is “essential” for national security.
In recent months, FEMA has frequently found itself in a defensive position following the spread of various unfounded conspiracy theories about the agency and natural disasters from some of Trump’s most fervent supporters.
Trump himself accused FEMA of misallocating funds to accommodate undocumented immigrants, while Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has falsely asserted that the U.S. government can control weather patterns and has advocated for organized cloud seeding to mitigate the California wildfires.
If the task force proposes dismantling FEMA, Trump will need to rally his supporters in Congress to take decisive action.
