US President Donald Trump traveled to North Carolina before continuing on to California on Friday to visit people affected by hurricanes and wildfires.
Visits are Trump’s first trips outside the doors of Washington, DC, as he took his time as president to the workplace.
Trump has sharply criticized California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other officials for responding to wildfires that have widespread devastation this month.
However, as the pair met on the tarmac in California, Trump struck a more positive note, saying: “I appreciate the governor coming out and meeting me,”
He promised to “repair it,” adding, “What you get is over is painting with the state governor, and we’ll finish it. They’re going to want a lot of federal help. “
Trump was one of those who disseminated many false or deceptive claims about forest fires in Los Angeles, many of whom have viral after Elon Musk republished them on their social media platform.
Among these claims was that Newsom refused to provide water from the northern part of the state to fight the fires in order to protect an endangered fish species called the delta smelt.
Newsom said there no connection between the fish and the fireplace and that he did not hold water from Northern California to combat fireplaces in the southern component of the state.
In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Trump threatened to withhold aid in California and continued to blame state water control policies for getting worse fires.
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“I don’t think I give anything in California until they run water,” Trump said in an interview with Sean Hannity on Wednesday.
Since they exploded, the chimneys have killed another 28 people and have broken or destroyed approximately 16,000 structures, the government said. The RAW are planned for the region on the weekend, but a giant component in southern California remains under excessive chimney warning.
Trump also accused Biden’s management of not doing enough to the west of North Carolina with recovery efforts since Hurricane Helene caused the region in September.
Biden’s management rejected accusations as misinformation.
In contrast to his comments on the assistance to other people affected through fires in California, Trump promised before the elections that would cut the bureaucracy and provide federal in the reconstruction of devastated houses through Hurricane Helene.
But after arriving in North Carolina, Trump questioned the federal government’s role in disaster relief.
“I’ll also be signing an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA, or maybe getting rid of FEMA,” Trump told reporters, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
He added that he would like to see states “deal with disasters” and that he would read about “the whole concept” of FEMA.
“Let the State take care of tornadoes and hurricanes and all the things that happen,” Trump told reporters.
KB/SMS (Reuters, AP, AFP)