Trump Criticizes Disaster Response, Proposes Changes (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: We're going to begin with President Donald Trump right now on his way to Southern California as he visits disaster-torn regions of this country. The president is expected to tour areas impacted by those deadly, destructive wildfires that ravaged parts of Los Angeles earlier today. Trump criticized California's response to those fires, calling it a bad situation.

Speaker 2: That is a disaster like, I don't know if we've ever seen anything like it. It looks like something hit it. And we won't talk about what hit it, but it is a bad, bad situation.

Speaker 1: Trump began his multi-state trip in North Carolina this morning, stopping in Asheville, North Carolina to assess the damage caused by Hurricane Helene last year. There he slammed FEMA's response to the emergency in North Carolina, threatening to get rid of the agency completely.

Speaker 2: I'll also be signing an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA or maybe getting rid of FEMA. I think, frankly, FEMA's not good. I think when you have a problem like this, I think you want to go and, whether it's a Democrat or Republican governor, you want to use your state to fix it and not waste time calling FEMA.

Speaker 1: So for more, let's bring in ABC News' Cristian Cordero. So first, Cristian, today's visits to North Carolina and California marked the president's first trips since returning to the White House. And he's doing what presidents do, he's going out to the disaster zones. But he also slammed FEMA and the Biden administration for its disaster response. What kind of changes is he proposing now that he's back in office?

Speaker 3: Well, as we just heard Terry write, the fundamental changes, the overhaul and perhaps getting rid of it entirely is what the president is floating right now. We're not really sure what he means by the fundamental reform to FEMA, but we do know that he can't get rid of the agency entirely, at least not without congressional help. And historically, anyways, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have supported FEMA. In fact, a lion's share, the majority of the billions of dollars in FEMA's disaster relief fund ends up going to hurricane-prone states like Louisiana, Texas and Florida, for example. So it is a little bit trickier than just what the president threw out there. And it will be really interesting to see what else he means by those fundamental reforms. Trump also says that he wants the states to lead the charge in disaster response. It's important to note that states largely already do. FEMA's efforts are typically to support the state's efforts and then reimburse them for those costs. Terry.

Speaker 1: Right. Trump also appeared to add a new condition on additional aid for the wildfires, demanding that lawmakers establish voter ID laws and open up water taps. Now, this is something that most presidents don't do. They don't say, OK, we'll give you disaster aid if you do these things on these other issues. It's generally been, let's help. Not with Trump. So how are Californians responding?

Speaker 3: Not surprisingly, they're not surprising or not responding very favorably to Trump's proposal. They're taking it as a threat. And California Governor Gavin Newsom, of course, a Democrat, says that it's wrong to put conditions on federal aid. I want to focus a little bit on the state's water supply, though, because it's a little bit of context. Right. California is somewhat unique in that most of the water comes from Northern California. So cities in the South, like Los Angeles, have to draw in from other sources. Trump has falsely claims that the hydrants ran dry in the Pacific Palisades. We remember that happening, right, because he says, which is false, that that water conservation efforts in California had diverted water elsewhere into the ocean. And the California, you know, the hydrants specifically in the Pacific Palisades, they ran dry because they were overstressed. There was you'll remember this extreme wind that prevented the firefight from happening in the air. And so all of the sources to pull from where those hydrants themselves and that overwhelm the system. But it is worth noting that that was a problem. And it's something that's under investigation, whether the city handled that appropriately,

Speaker 1: Terry. Right. Absolutely. So you always get something different with Donald Trump. Buckle up. Christiane Cordero, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you.