President Donald Trump has announced that he will be tasking Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Whatley to oversee hurricane relief efforts in North Carolina.
Under President Trump the people of Western North Carolina will not be an afterthought. Chairman Whatley loves NC and there’s no better advocate than him to help lead recovery efforts.
— John Seravalli (@John_Seravalli1) January 24, 2025
Trump made the announcement during a press conference in North Carolina while visiting to inspect the damage caused in September by Hurricane Helene and the failed relief efforts from the Biden administration.
If you’re wondering why everyone in Western North Carolina is freaking out about Trump coming today…
… It is because MY KIDS SOCCER FIELD still looks like this 119 days after the hurricane
We have been ignored for months, now we are finally getting help.
TRUMP EFFECT!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/mMdWIHpiyt
— Matt Van Swol (@matt_vanswol) January 24, 2025
“We’re going to work together with the governor. We’re going to work together with the senators, but really we’re going to work a lot with your congressmen, especially the three that are in the area, and Michael Whatley. And I’d like to put Michael in charge of making sure everything goes well,” the president explained, referencing the members of Congress whose districts had the most severe damage from the hurricane: Reps. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) of the fifth district, Chuck Edwards (R-NC) of the 11th district, and Tim Moore (R-NC) of the 14th district.
Trump went on to note that he would be “taking strong action to get North Carolina the support that you need to quickly recover and rebuild,” adding: “We’re working on it very hard.”
“I think if Michael Whatley does half as good a job for North Carolina as he did for my campaign, we’ll be very happy,” he continued.
Trump then revealed that he is contemplating implementing serious reforms at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which includes the possibility of eliminating the failed agency entirely. He suggested a different method of managing disaster response: a system where the federal government simply gives funds to the states to manage their disasters rather than letting FEMA handle all disaster relief.
“I think, frankly, FEMA is not good. I think when you have a problem like this…whether it’s a Democrat or Republican governor, you want to use your state to fix it and not waste time calling FEMA,” Trump argued.
“And then FEMA gets here, and they don’t know the area, they’ve never been to the area, and they want to give you rules that you’ve never heard about. They want to bring people that aren’t as good as the people you already have,” the president added.
“I think we’re going to recommend that FEMA go away, and we pay directly, and we pay a percentage to the state,” Trump continued.
