The acting head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency was fired on Thursday amid the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on the division tasked with handling disaster response. Cameron Hamilton’s termination was reportedly carried out by Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Troy Edgar and longtime Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski, who is serving as de facto chief of staff to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. No reason was given for Hamilton’s dismissal, according to a White House spokesperson.
As the country approaches the start of hurricane season in June, David Richardson, the assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security’s Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office, will now serve as acting head of FEMA. Richardson has zero experience in disaster response.
Hamilton’s firing comes just one day after the former Navy SEAL and State Department employee testified before the House Appropriations Committee. During the Wednesday session, Hamilton said, “I do not believe it is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency.”
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“Communities look to FEMA in their greatest times of need and it’s imperative that we remain ready to respond to those challenges,” he added.
President Donald Trump and the GOP used FEMA as a campaign talking point, spreading disinformation about the federal response to major storms and flooding that hit North Carolina in September 2024. Trump has called FEMA “no good” and said that his administration would “recommend that FEMA go away and we pay directly.”
A man walks past an area flooded by the effects of Hurricane Helene near the Swannanoa River on Sept. 27, 2024, in Asheville, North Carolina.
At the same time, the Trump administration is reportedly planning reforms to federal disaster relief programs that would make it harder for communities to qualify for aid. Meanwhile, states like North Carolina, the focus of so many of the Trump campaign’s lies about FEMA, have continued to struggle to get the funds already promised under the Biden administration.
Predictably, the people most likely to feel the impact of a weakened FEMA are the same people who have shown the most support for Trump. In Arkansas, Republican Sens. John Boozman and Tom Cotton, along with Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, are already learning how much begging it can take to get some of the federal relief their citizens need after tornadoes ravaged their state in March.
With FEMA expected to run out of disaster relief funds by this summer, questions are mounting about whether a Republican-controlled Congress, beholden to a cruel Trump, will do anything to fund it.
“I worry very much about what happens when natural disasters hit,” Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii told reporters.
We all should.
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