Storm Season Arrives with FEMA Sidelined by Trump

The impacts of Musk's DOGE and Trump cuts are being felt already!

We all knew that at some point soon, all the haphazard, ill-advised staffing cuts made by Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE would have real world impacts on public health and well being. As hurricane season approaches, there are some very disturbing reports coming out of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), as yet another new acting director is appointed, who has no emergency management experience. Meanwhile, the National Weather Service is so understaffed after Musk’s DOGE cuts, that the Trump regime is now offering to pay for relocations. Storm season is upon us. What could go wrong?

Before we get to FEMA, recall all the other real impacts and consequences we have covered in this series of the early DOGE cuts, and the lack of qualified leadership at federal agencies. We’ve covered the chaos and paralysis at the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service having four different acting leaders and losing 20 percent of its staff in the midst of tax season. There’s also disarray at our Federal Aviation Administration, as two airports (Newark and Denver) have lost communications with planes in recent days, and currently just two of the 313 U.S. airports meet required staffing levels, after DOGE cuts. Oh, and did we mention there’s a measles outbreak, with more than 1,000 confirmed cases, and Trump picked an anti-vaxxer to run our nation’s Health and Human Services agency?

Now tragically, as our country experienced four days of severe storms this past week, we’ll cover how ill prepared we are heading into hurricane season. Let’s also not forget that this regime is full of conspiracy theorists - it’s a feature, not a bug - who don’t believe in climate change:

At every level of government, authority figures are embracing once-extreme ideas, including that the Earth is flat or that the state controls the weather.

Sigh. Let’s trace through Trump’s hate affair with FEMA.

Background on Trump and FEMA

In the days after Trump took office, he told reporters, “I think, frankly, FEMA is not good," and that the agency was a "big disappointment." He also signed an executive order creating a task force to review FEMA and decide on ways to overhaul or dissolve it. His Secretary of DHS Kristi Noem has compliantly been vocal on favoring the latter.