Trump Wants to Kill FEMA. Who Pays When the Next Storm Hits?

He’s firing disaster experts, gutting emergency response, and siding with the companies fueling climate chaos.

Greenpeace outside of FEMA HQ this week.

The man Donald Trump tapped to lead FEMA — the agency that exists to help Americans survive hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, and floods — didn’t know when hurricane season began.

It’s a detail from recent reports about acting FEMA Administrator David Richardson, who reportedly admitted in an internal meeting that he wasn’t aware the U.S.even had a hurricane season. A few days later, Trump stood in the Oval Office and floated his plan to dismantle FEMA altogether.

The Trump administration’s actual plan for climate disasters: fire the experts, slash the budgets, and hope for the best.

What’s Happening to FEMA Is a Five-Alarm Fire

Under Trump, FEMA has already lost about a third of its workforce. That’s nearly 2,000 staff gone, including experienced emergency managers pushed out to make room for political loyalists. Now, Trump is saying disaster response should be “returned to the states,” with no national coordination and disaster funds routed directly through the White House.

In other words, if your state isn’t MAGA-aligned, you might be out of luck.

Trump has already denied aid to tornado survivors in Arkansas and Hurricane Helene victims in North Carolina. His latest comments suggest that if governors can’t handle disasters on their own, “maybe they shouldn’t be governor.” As if resilience is just a matter of personal willpower, not resources, support, or national strategy.

Meanwhile, the country is barreling toward what forecasters say will be an above-average hurricane season. Thousands of communities are still cleaning up from the last storm, and Trump is gutting the only agency built to help them.

Trump is Attacking the Whole Emergency System

FEMA isn’t the only target. Trump has slashed NOAA’s billion-dollar disaster tracker, he’s floated eliminating the Weather Channel, and he’s repeatedly questioned the science that underpins our entire climate preparedness system.

Trump’s trying to make this seem like ordinary policy change, but the truth is, he’s not trying to make FEMA better. He’s trying to get rid of it in order to protect his Big Oil friends, while leaving disaster-stricken communities to fend for themselves.

The Answer? Make Polluters Pay.

Here’s the unfortunate truth: even at full strength, FEMA was never enough. Disasters are getting worse. The damage is piling up, and the federal government is retreating.

That’s why we need new tools that step in where FEMA is being forced to step back, starting with Climate Superfund laws. Because in the face of disaster, help shouldn’t depend on political loyalty. It should depend on fairness.

We still need FEMA, but we also need a system where the polluters who supercharged the climate crisis finally pay their share — and families don’t have to fight for scraps after every fire, flood, or storm.

Let’s build that system together, starting with making polluters pay.