Authoritarianism By Attrition And Disaster by Design: Trump’s Plan To Dismantle FEMA

Instead Of FEMA, The GOP Disaster Response Plan Is Pray, Drown, Vote Republican

Why should Americans be concerned that Trump and his rubber stamp Congress are about to shitcan FEMA? Their plan to dismantle FEMA is reckless— a textbook example of what happens when far-right ideology collides with basic human needs. FEMA has supported over 50 million Americans in disaster zones since its inception, coordinating billions in emergency aid after hurricanes, floods, wildfires and other catastrophes. Stripping that away and dumping the responsibility onto individual states— many of which are already strapped for cash and lack the infrastructure for major disaster response— isn’t about “efficiency” or “state empowerment.” It’s about sabotaging government from within and leaving people to fend for themselves in moments of maximum vulnerability.

That Trump and his congressional puppets are actually moving forward with this plan— during what NOAA predicts will be a particularly deadly hurricane season— is irresponsible and probably criminally negligent. The idea that states should “stand on their own two feet” in the face of Category 5 hurricanes is the kind of absurdity you’d expect in a libertarian fever dream, not national policy. The real goal here isn’t to make disaster response better… it’s to gut public services, shrink the federal government to a right-wing fantasy size and funnel what’s left into the president’s discretionary slush fund. This is authoritarianism by attrition— and, of course, it’s the American people who will pay the price.

I can’t emphasize enough that what Gabe Cohen reported for CNN yesterday is, in the face of intensifying climate disasters, recklessness signaling a deeper erosion of the federal government’s role in protecting public welfare— a role that historically has been essential during moments of national crisis, an example of neoliberalism on steroids, cloaked in the language of “state’s rights.” How can Congress allow him to dismantle the infrastructure designed to respond when people are at their most vulnerable? Oh yeah, the Republican Party has a majority in each chamber; that's how.

FEMA exists precisely because no state— especially not the poorer and more rural ones that voted for Trump— can absorb the human and financial costs of large-scale disasters on their own. Hurricanes don’t stop at state borders. Earthquakes and wildfires don’t check local budgets. Floods don’t care if your governor is competent or not. This move would leave millions at the mercy of geography, wealth and ideology— creating a two-tiered system where disaster response is contingent not on need, but on political favoritism, presidential whim and local capacity. Active sabotage, anyone? 

The administration has gutted FEMA’s leadership, driven out staff, and installed loyalists with no relevant experience, ensuring the agency is weakened just in time to justify its elimination. At the same time, Trump is centralizing disaster aid in the White House, effectively turning emergency relief into a political tool he can dispense or withhold at will. This is clearing about political control— punishing blue states, undermining public trust in government and replacing a functioning safety net with chaos— chaos that only benefits strongmen and their cronies. If MAGA Mike and Thune allow  this plan to go forward, Americans won't just be on their own after the next disaster, they’ll be deliberately left behind.

Cohen wrote that by announcing that he plans to phase out FEMA after this year’s hurricane season, Señor TACO is  “offering the clearest timeline yet for his administration’s long-term plans to dismantle the disaster relief agency and shift responsibility for response and recovery onto states. ‘We want to wean off of FEMA, and we want to bring it down to the state level,’ Trump told reporters during a briefing in the Oval Office, later saying, ‘A governor should be able to handle it, and frankly, if they can’t handle it, the aftermath, then maybe they shouldn’t be governor.’ Trump added that the federal government will start distributing less federal aid for disaster recovery and that the funding will come directly from the president’s office. The NOAA projects this year’s hurricane season, which officially ends on November 30, to be particularly intense and potentially deadly.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed that FEMA “fundamentally needs to go away as it exists. We all know from the past that FEMA has failed thousands if not millions of people and President Trump does not want to see that continue into the future.”

Cohen noted that “Plans to eliminate FEMA have baffled federal and state emergency managers, who doubt localized efforts could replace the agency’s robust infrastructure for disaster response. Most states, they said, do not have the budget or personnel to handle catastrophic disasters on their own, even if the federal government provides a financial backstop in the most dire situations. ‘This is a complete misunderstanding of the role of the federal government in emergency management and disaster response and recovery, and it’s an abdication of that role when a state is overwhelmed,’ a longtime FEMA leader told CNN. ‘It is clear from the president’s remarks that their plan is to limp through hurricane season and then dismantle the agency.’ The agency has entered hurricane season understaffed and under-prepared, after months of turmoil, plummeting morale and workforce reductions. At least 10% of its total staff have left since January, including a large swath of its senior leadership, and the agency is projected to lose close to 30% of its workforce by the end of the year, shrinking FEMA from about 26,000 workers to roughly 18,000… Last month, Noem appointed David Richardson— a former marine combat veteran and martial-arts instructor with no prior experience managing natural disasters— to lead FEMA. Richardson, who came from the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction office at DHS, has since brought in more than a half-dozen homeland security officials to help him run the agency, relegating more seasoned staff to lesser roles… ‘The FEMA thing has not been a very successful experiment,’ Trump said Tuesday. ‘It’s extremely expensive, and again, when you have a tornado or a hurricane or you have a problem of any kind in a state, that’s what you have governors for. They’re supposed to fix those problems.’” 

Richardson, pictured above with Señor Trumpanzee, said he wasn’t aware that the U.S. has a hurricane season... which began June 1 and goes through November. Good luck, everyone!