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Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.
In today’s edition, we dive into how President Donald Trump capped off a whirlwind week with yet another new proposal that would significantly alter the federal government’s role in disaster response. Plus, “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker examines what Trump has — and hasn’t — accomplished in his first few days in office.
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— Adam Wollner
President Donald Trump embarked today on his first trip since taking office, visiting two states that have been devastated by natural disasters in recent months, North Carolina and California. And he used the occasion to turn back to a familiar foe: the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA.
While Trump has been critical of the agency in the past, he went a step further Friday, floating an overhaul — or the outright elimination — of FEMA.
“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 is not good,” Trump said.
He suggested cutting FEMA out of the process entirely for future natural disasters and voiced support for letting states take charge of disaster response.
“I’d like to see the states take care of disasters, let the state take care of the tornadoes and the hurricanes and all of the other things that happen,” Trump said. “And I think you’re going to find it a lot less expensive. You’ll do it for less than half and you’re going to get a lot quicker response.”
The context: As Elyse Perlmutter-Gumbiner, Vaughn Hillyard and Alexandra Marquez write, FEMA doesn’t traditionally work alone in response to natural disasters to clean up debris and provide humanitarian aid, but alongside state and local partners.
As it stands, both state governors and FEMA play a role in disaster response. Governors have the ability to declare states of emergency, control and coordinate their emergency management agencies, and deploy state resources such as the National Guard.
It is only when states make a formal request for federal assistance — or when the situation clearly exceeds state and local capabilities — that the federal government steps in, and that requires the president to sign a disaster declaration.
Can Trump do that? In order to eliminate FEMA entirely he would need Congress to give him authority under the Presidential Reorganization Act. In short, Trump could seek support from both chambers for the authority to consolidate, reorganize or eliminate executive branch departments. That last happened during the Reagan administration.
It’s unclear just how receptive Republican lawmakers would be to that. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a moderate who hasn’t been afraid to break with Trump in the past, said she heard “disappointing reports on how FEMA operated” in recent natural disasters and that additional oversight and hearings would be warranted.
But she added, “I still think you need some sort of FEMA-like agency at the federal level.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., a Trump ally, said getting rid of FEMA would “probably be a good idea.”
What comes next: A White House official tells Peter Alexander that Trump will sign an executive order today that takes a first step toward potentially reshaping the Federal Emergency Management Agency by creating a task force to review it and recommend changes.
There was plenty of other news from Trump and his administration today outside of the president’s FEMA remarks. Here are the top lines:
Follow live updates →
Last month, Donald Trump told me that he wanted to immediately address a range of issues when he took office. He’s accomplished some of that in his first five days as president, but some major issues are still on the table.
After he didn’t rule out pardoning violent Jan. 6 rioters when he spoke to “Meet the Press” in December, he did so on Monday. Trump also said he would try to end birthright citizenship on his first day in office. He issued an executive order attempting to do just that, although that’s already facing legal challenges.
In our interview, Trump said he would sign executive orders relating to the southern border, energy and electric vehicles, which he also signed on Monday.
And after Trump told me last weekend that he was considering delaying a ban on TikTok, he signed an order on Monday instructing the Justice Department not to enforce the ban for 75 days.
But some of Trump’s major campaign pledges remain on his to-do list.
Trump had said he would impose a 25% tariff on goods from Mexico and Canada on his first day in office. He didn’t go through with it, though he did say those tariffs could come on Feb. 1. While Trump sees tariffs as a crucial economic tool, he told me in December that he could not guarantee that they won’t drive up prices.
Trump also promised a swift end to the war in Ukraine, which continues. He did tell me in December that Ukraine should “possibly” prepare for less U.S. aid in its fight against Russia once he took office.
Also in December, Trump signaled that he may be redefining his promises of “retribution,” telling me that “retribution will be through success” and walking back his pledge to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate former President Joe Biden.
But this week, Trump suggested Biden and those the now-former president pardoned before leaving office should face congressional investigations, telling Fox News, “I went through four years of hell. I spent millions of dollars in legal fees, and I won. But I did it the hard way. It’s really hard to say that they shouldn’t have to go through it all.”
We’ll unpack more of Trump’s first week in office, and what’s next for his agenda, on Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” where I’ll speak to Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Adam Schiff, D-Calif.
That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner, Bridget Bowman and Ben Kamisar.
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