President Donald Trump, who made baseless attacks against FEMA during his 2024 campaign, suggested on Wednesday night that he wants to defund the Homeland Security emergency management agency and shift the burden for disaster relief to individual states. The move would revoke federal responsibility for managing crises like hurricanes, earthquakes, flooding, and wildfires. While his remarks appear to align with The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, he appears to have gone further in appointing an interim FEMA head who reportedly “does not appear to have experience coordinating responses to large scale disasters.”

Although he has repeatedly denied knowing anything about Project 2025, despite at least 140 of his former administration’s officials having been involved with the program, President Trump appears to be following the far-right plan to eliminate or largely downsize the 45-year-old agency. Its current incarnation was created by President Jimmy Carter, but the federal government of the United States has been assisting states with disaster relief for well over 200 years.

“Now, I will say that Los Angeles has changed everything, because a lot of money’s gonna be necessary for Los Angeles, and a lot of people on the other side want that to happen,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in a pre-taped interview that aired Wednesday night (video below). In recent weeks, California’s wildfires, fueled in part by climate change according to Scientific American, have decimated large swaths of the Los Angeles area, killing dozens of people.

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“Well, they don’t care about North Carolina. The Democrats don’t care about North Carolina. What they’ve done with FEMA is so bad. FEMA is a whole other discussion. Because all it does is complicate everything,” Trump baselessly charged. “FEMA has not done their job for the last four years. You know, I had FEMA working really well, we had hurricanes in Florida, we had Alabama, tornadoes, we had. — but unless you have certain types of leadership, it’s really, it gets in the way.”

“And FEMA is gonna be a whole big discussion very shortly because I’d rather see the states take care of their own problems,” Trump declared, alluding to wanting to dismantle the agency. “If they have a tornado, someplace, and if they have —  let that state, Oklahoma is very competent. I love Oklahoma. 77 out a 77 districts and uh that’s never been done,” he claimed, referring to his Electoral College win.

On Thursday, The Independent reported, “Trump wants to shut down the Federal Emergency Management Agency and let states handle their own disaster needs.”

Project 2025 describes the Department of Homeland Security as a “bloated” bureaucracy that would “provide real opportunities for a conservative Administration to cut billions in spending and limit government’s role in Americans’ lives.”

It calls for “privatizing” FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program, and “reforming FEMA emergency spending to shift the majority of preparedness and response costs to states and localities instead of the federal government,” as well as “eliminating most of DHS’s grant programs, and removing all unions in the department for national security purposes.”

Trump’s remark, “I’d rather see the states take care of their own problems,” is similar to a portion of Project 2025’s proposal.

But Trump appears to have taken yet another step that could harm FEMA.

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Trump has appointed a former Navy SEAL, Cameron Hamilton, who “does not appear to have experience coordinating responses to large-scale disasters, like the wildfires in California,” to be the interim head of FEMA, according to The New York Times.

“Mr. Hamilton is an unusual choice to lead the agency, even in a temporary capacity. Since Hurricane Katrina, when the federal response was severely criticized, FEMA has been led by disaster management professionals who have run state or local emergency management agencies, or were regional administrators at FEMA,” the Times reported. “Mr. Hamilton does not appear to have experience coordinating responses to large scale disasters like the wildfires that are raging in Los Angeles or the hurricanes, floods and earthquakes that FEMA typically manages.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

Trump: “FEMA is gonna be a whole big discussion very shortly, because I’d rather see the states takes care of their own problems.” pic.twitter.com/wiwRCeqSMc

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 23, 2025

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Image via Reuters

President Donald Trump’s actions on immigration and border security have raised concerns among Americans, including among immigrants’ rights advocates and military experts. Within his first few days in office, the President reportedly directed that anyone crossing the southern border into the U.S. be immediately returned, a move that legal experts claim violates federal and international law. Additionally, Trump has ordered the deployment of “thousands” of military troops to the border—potentially as many as 10,000, according to CNN—on top of the more than 2000 already stationed there. Calling them “political props,” some military experts have criticized this action as unnecessary.

“The Trump administration asked the military earlier this week to be prepared to deploy up to 10,000 active duty troops immediately, setting off a scramble inside the Pentagon, one of the officials and another person familiar with the matter told CNN,” the news network reported Wednesday.

“Citing President Trump’s extraordinary move to close the American asylum system, U.S. border agents have been instructed to summarily deport migrants crossing into the country illegally without allowing them to request legal protection, according to internal government documents and agency officials,” CBS News adds. “Just hours after being sworn in, Mr. Trump invoked sweeping presidential authorities to bar the entry of migrants deemed to be participating in an ‘invasion’ of the U.S., as well as those who may pose a public health or national security risk.”

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CBS News’ Camilo Montoya-Galvez adds, “President Trump has effectively revived the Covid-era Title 42 policy, suspending U.S. asylum law for unauthorized migrants entering the country. But instead of using public health law, he’s asserting sweeping constitutional and 212(f) powers and arguing there’s an ‘invasion.'”

Iraq War veteran, veterans’ activist, and writer Paul Rieckhoff blasted President Trump for sending more troops to the border.

“There already 2,500 National Guard and Reserve forces there. Sending active duty troops to the border now is nothing more than Trump overtly using them as political props,” he charged. “Especially since active duty troops are forbidden from doing law enforcement under the Posse Comitatus Act. They can’t arrest or detain anyone at the border unless Trump acts to invoke the Insurrection Act. Which of course may be next.”

“Nevertheless,” Rieckhoff added, “this is a blatant politicization and misuse of our military by Trump. And likely just the first of many to come. Especially if [Pete] Hegseth is confirmed [as Secretary of Defense]. Everything in America is going to be used and politicized by Trump. Our military most egregiously and dangerously of all. Strap in, folks. And stay vigilant. This is just the start. #PresidentMayhem is back.”

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Attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, an immigration policy expert and senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, called Trump’s order to essentially send back immigrants crossing the border, “Flagrantly and flatly illegal.”

“A president cannot erase the laws passed by Congress and the right to due process with the stroke of a pen,” Reichlin-Melnick said. “This is an invocation of authority that should worry any American. A president is not a king. He is bound by the law and must remain so.”

MSNBC columnist Michael A. Cohen, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic Studies (CSS), added, “Trump is basically ignoring domestic and international law by doing this.”

“So disturbing that U.S. law enforcement officers at CBP are being directed to violate laws enacted by Congress & treaties entered into by the United States. This is the opposite of the rule of law. It’s the road to chaos. And will endanger lives here & around the world,” observed Eleanor Acer, Refugee Protection director at Human Rights First.

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Image via Reuters

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They assaulted police officers and crashed and trashed the People’s House — some in an effort to overturn a free and fair election — but now that Donald Trump is President and has granted a “full pardon” to about 1500 of them, some of the January 6 rioters and insurrectionists reportedly may get an invitation to the White House. Trump has repeatedly called them “hostages.”

CNN’s Alayna Treene reports (video below), “there have been discussions about having them come” to the White House for a visit “and a potential meeting with Donald Trump.”

“I’m told, according to two sources we’re familiar with, some of these discussions that essentially, some Trump administration officials have had discussions over potentially inviting the people that Donald Trump pardoned on Monday, the January sixth convicts,” she added.

Treene notes it is “unclear exactly who he’s thinking about, if it includes just the people he pardoned or also those who he commuted the sentences of, uh, including Oathkeepers , uh, and Proud Boys.”

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She stressed, “it’s unclear, um, if this is even going to happen, it is under consideration.”

According to the Washington Post, 14 of the January 6 defendants were convicted of seditious conspiracy. At least 379 were charged with assaulting police or the media — the vast majority of them have also been sentenced. 287 were charged with “less violent or nonviolent felonies.” Most of them have already been convicted. And 869 were charged with “misdemeanor counts such as trespassing or disorderly conduct.” The vast majority of them have also been sentenced.

About 140 law enforcement officers were injured on January 6, 2021.

“While Trump had long promised pardons for many, if not most, of those convicted of nonviolent crimes on Jan. 6,” NBC News reported, “he had been less clear about how he would handle those found guilty of violent offenses, including 169 people who pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers.”

“Trump decided to go about as far as he could, issuing roughly 1,500 pardons and commuting the sentences for 14 others.”

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On Tuesday, Trump “suggested there could be a place in American politics for the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, extremist groups whose leaders were convicted of seditious conspiracy against the U.S.,” the Associated Press reported.

Watch the video below or at this link.

According to CNN’s sources, Trump Administration officials have had discussions about potentially inviting the people that Trump pardoned to The White House. pic.twitter.com/P8L2mc2WIF

— Acyn (@Acyn) January 22, 2025

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