US President Donald Trump visited disaster-hit western North Carolina on Friday and was traveling later to Los Angeles, promising help while stoking partisan tensions with Democratic rivals over recovery efforts.
Trump's first trip since reclaiming the presidency on Monday could provide an opportunity to assure residents that the federal government will help those whose lives have been upended by hurricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters.
On arrival in Asheville, North Carolina, he sharply attacked the Federal Emergency Management Agency's handling of the after-effects of September's Hurricane Helene. FEMA was run by then-President Joe Biden's administration for the last four years.
During a briefing about recovery efforts, the Republican Trump promised to speedily help North Carolina "get the help you need" to rebuild.
He said he would prefer the states be given federal money to handle disasters themselves rather than rely on FEMA to do the job. He said he would sign an executive order aimed at what he said would address problems inherent to FEMA.
"I think we're going to recommend that FEMA go away," he said.
Trump complained that Biden did not do enough to help western North Carolina recover from the hurricane, an accusation the Biden administration rejected as misinformation.
Trump also sharply criticized Democratic officials' response to wildfires in Los Angeles that have caused widespread destruction this month. His Republican colleagues in Congress have threatened to withhold disaster aid for the region.
Trump was due to visit Los Angeles later in the day while three massive blazes still threaten the region.
NEWSOM TO GREET TRUMP IN LOS ANGELES
In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Trump also threatened to withhold aid and repeated a false claim that California Governor Gavin Newsom and other officials have refused to provide water from the northern part of the state to fight the fires.
"I don't think we should give California anything until they let the water flow down," Trump said.
He has falsely claimed that Newsom, a Democrat, prioritized the preservation of endangered fish over public safety. Newsom has said there is no connection between the fish and the fire.
The governor told reporters on Thursday that he planned to be on hand at Los Angeles International Airport to greet Trump.
"I look forward to being there on the tarmac to thank the president and welcome him," Newsom said.
Trump has accused Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass - who was out of the country when the fires broke out - of "gross incompetence," pointing to what he called a lack of preparation and ineffective or harmful water management policies.
“It's ashes, and Gavin Newscum (sic) should resign. This is all his fault!!!,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, denigrating the governor by misspelling his name.
Water shortages caused some hydrants to run dry in affluent Pacific Palisades, hindering the early response. When the fires broke out, one of the reservoirs that could have supplied more water to the area was empty for a year. Officials have promised an investigation into why it was dry.
Mayor Bass and fire officials have said the hydrants were not designed to deal with such a massive disaster, and stressed the unprecedented nature of the fires.
Trump has focused some of his criticism on California's complicated policies for sharing the plentiful water supply found in the northern part of the state with the parched south. The diversion results in the discharge of some water into the ocean, something Trump has depicted as a callous waste.
Newsom has dismissed those attacks as groundless, and experts have said that the diversions, in part designed to protect agricultural interests, have played little or no part in the difficulties encountered in fighting the fires.
Since the fires broke out on Jan. 7, they have killed 28 people and damaged or destroyed nearly 16,000 structures, authorities say. Much of Southern California remains under a red-flag warning for extreme fire risk due to strong, dry winds.
