In a major overhaul of federal disaster response, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will be eliminated under the Trump administration’s plan to restructure how emergency relief is managed in the United States. The announcement marks the most significant rollback of FEMA’s authority since its creation—and signals the administration’s broader strategy to dismantle federal bureaucracies seen as bloated, politicized, and inefficient.
Speaking during a White House cabinet meeting, Noem emphasized the DHS’s stepped-up enforcement and border security operations, including a 50% increase in deportations in recent weeks and a historic surge in Coast Guard-led drug interdictions. “We’re now not even just getting the worst of the worst out,” Noem said, “we’re making sure there’s consequences for being here and committing crimes in our communities.”
But the real headline came when Noem reiterated what she had hinted at months earlier: FEMA is being scrapped in its current form. She and President Trump argue that the agency has become too centralized, too political, and too slow to act when disaster strikes.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announces the elimination of FEMA at President Trump’s cabinet meeting today pic.twitter.com/lzipHx6x7L
— Politically Stripped ™️ (@politstrip) March 24, 2025
Noem had previewed the move during a CNN interview in February, calling FEMA a “bureaucracy that’s picking and choosing winners.” She advocated for a disaster relief model where local officials—not federal administrators—control funds and response plans, allowing for faster, more targeted aid without red tape.
Trump has echoed that sentiment repeatedly. “FEMA has not done their job for the last four years,” he told Sean Hannity in January. “They complicate everything.”
The administration’s case against FEMA was only strengthened by a scandal that erupted last fall. A former FEMA supervisor, Marn’i Washington, was fired after issuing politically motivated guidance directing relief crews to skip homes displaying Trump 2024 signs in Lake Placid, Florida. According to a formal complaint by the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), no credible safety threats existed, and the instructions were repeated over several days, causing crews to skip at least 20 homes impacted by Hurricane Milton.
Washington’s conduct violated the Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from engaging in political activity while on duty. The OSC report dismantled her defense that Trump supporters posed safety risks, revealing that no such threats were ever reported by relief crews. Washington denied giving partisan guidance but was removed from her post just days after the story broke.
The scandal, which drew national outrage, is now being cited as a case study in what critics call FEMA’s politicized and unaccountable culture.
This backdrop adds urgency to Noem’s announcement. FEMA’s dissolution is not simply a budgetary adjustment—it’s a political and philosophical declaration: Disaster aid must be local, fast, and apolitical.
Of course, the administration isn’t eliminating disaster relief entirely. The plan includes transferring FEMA’s financial resources to a decentralized network of local responders and state agencies, backed by DHS coordination. But the days of waiting for federal permission to rebuild or wondering whether aid will be filtered through a partisan lens are, in theory, numbered.
