President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his administration will wait until after this hurricane season to begin cutting disaster aid to states.
Trump’s comments to reporters during an Oval Office briefing are the clearest signal yet that Trump would continue to help states grapple with disasters for at least several more months, despite his threats to abolish the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
When asked how much disaster-related costs would be shifted to states from FEMA, Trump at one point turned to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and said, “We think, after this… Kristi, I’d say after the hurricane season, we’ll start phasing—”
“We set up a FEMA council,” Noem interjected. “Over the next couple of months, we’ll be working on reforms and what FEMA will look like in the future as a different agency.”
