Trump criticizes FEMA during North Carolina Helene tour
so we're going there but I said well what about North Carolina well you could do that no I can't I said we're stopping in North Carolina first and then we're going to Los Angeles and we just appreciate the uh outpouring of love that we've had here Laura was uh as you know very instrumental in the campaign and she lived here and is loved and we appreciate it and Michael Watley has been incredible wherever Michael is hello Michael Michael Watley has been great and your Congressmen have been great and uh what we thought we do is take a quick look around first we wanted to do this I I want to say that we're very disappointed in fima your new governor it's not his fault he's brand new to the whole situation but uh we're going to work together with the governor we're going to work together with the uh the Senators but really we're going to work a lot with your Congressman especially the three that are in the area and Michael Watley and I'd like to put Michael in charge of making sure everything goes well and Franklin gam has been unbelievable we've made a big contribution to Franklin and will'll continue to do so but uh I've been hearing nothing but praise for the job that Samaritan Pur has done with Franklin and we appreciate where is Franklin he's around here someplace and that good-look guy he's always been a good-looking guy his father was a good-look guy too I'll tell you we loved his father right I saw his father in the latter years and I said well he uh he doesn't have long to go he was having a hard time and he lived about 3 four years after that right he was he he was they call they say it was good stock he had the ultimate good stock but I want to thank you Franklin you were you've been fantastic here and everywhere he goes he he's always he's always the first one I see does uh people don't realize that how how good it is a lot of people think oh well maybe it's for the people that he's got and you you guys know because you're here but the people that he's got have done amazing work so I just want to thank everybody we're going to get over and take a look uh we'll say a few words I want to just I do want to introduce some of the people that we have and uh our first lady we'll start with our first lady she wanted to be here because of North Carolina and then I said well you can do that but you going have to to come to California too and she said that's okay and we got to fix that one up too that's do you ever see anything like that one it's uh who would have who would have thought that could have happened so uh Governor Josh Stein thank you very much we appreciate it and uh we're going to have h a very long and good relationship Representatives maybe stand up if you would so we the Press can see uh Representatives Chuck Edwards Chuck thank you thank you Chuck Tim Moore Virginia you know Virginia Fox a legend she is a such a powerful woman Pat harrian thank you very much your agriculture commissioner who I hear is excellent Steve Troxler Steve thank you very much good job Steve you got plenty to do right more than you ever thought North Carolina speaker Dustin Hall thank you Dustin thanks Dustin very good House Majority Leader Brendan Jones Brendan thank you very much we're making progress Brendan state representatives Dudley green Carl gillesby thank you very much fellas good good thank you very much state senators Kevin Corbin Warren Daniel thank you thank you very much Kevin Warren and County commissioner Jennifer best thank you Jennifer thank you so hurricane Helen was one of the worst natural disasters in American history it was far worse than it was even built I have never seen such water damage it was largely water damage wind damage but water damage nobody's ever seen I've been here as you know numerous times but now I'm here in a position where we can do something uh meaning I've been in in office for 4 days and I wanted to come sooner but actually they had a little problem with getting logistically in here but I would have been here even sooner uh 104 104 North Carolinians have at least have lost their lives uh is that now uh a fairly firm number or are they still finding people you know what do you think they're still finding people pretty much okay it's a lot of people 104 people lost their lives 73,000 homes were severely damaged or destroyed and I'll tell you I've been to a lot of them and this was uh this was like lots of hurricanes in one I've never seen such Damage Done by water and the the water came it it was violent and it left and there was like nothing left it's really pretty amazing at one point half of the emergency calls the FEMA went unanswered that's real bad FEMA was not doing their job the city of Asheville went without running water for 2 months a whistleblower testified that some FEMA employees refused to help people who display Trump signs on their property I think that's true isn't it I read that it's not nice that's not too nice is it uh but whoever those property people were thank you very much Michael is that true that's not good huh about the property owners you put a trump sign on they wouldn't help FEMA earlier this year FEMA kicked 2,000 North Carolinians out of their temporary housing into below freezing temperatures what was that all about is that you know about that what happened tell me we had an incompetent Administration uh under Biden and uh we had a disaster and then we call it the disaster after the disaster that was the theme of response you've had nothing but disaster since then it doesn't matter at this point Biden did a bad job some residents still don't have hot water drinking water or anything else and many of them don't have quarters they don't have anything they got as stipended for what they lost and we're going to take care of it this is totally unacceptable and I'll be taking strong action to get North Carolina the support that you need to quickly recover and rebuild we're working on it very hard and I think if Michael wattley does half as good a job for North Carolina as he did for my campaign we'll be very happy him and Laura were a very powerful team so you think think you can handle it Michael I don't know I'm not sure Michael I think this is maybe in many ways easier okay maybe easier but you're going to lead the team do you want to say who the uh who the congressmen are that you want to appoint you want to introduce them we have Virginia Fox Chuck Edwards and Tim Moore whose districts and compass and they are the districts that were most severely impacted right you were you were affected then V yes lost my own fire really yeah I'll also be signed 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 I think when you have a problem like this I think you want to go and uh whether it's a Democrat or Republican Governor you want to use your state to fix it and not waste time calling FEMA and then FEMA gets here and they don't know the area they've never been to the area and they want to give you rules that you've never heard about they want to bring people that aren't as good as the people you already have and FEMA turned out to be a a disas to and you could go back a long way you could go back to Louisiana you could go back to some of the things that took place in Texas it it turns out to be the state that ends up doing the work it just complicates it I think we're going to recommend that FEMA go away and we pay directly we pay a percentage to the state but the state should fix this if the state did this from the beginning it would have been a lot better situation I think you guys agree with that right so I just want to tell that a say that Asheville I know it well it's a great place and we're going to have it be a great place again that was the one that was most severely affected but uh North Carolina is going to come back bigger better stronger than ever before and you're going to be very thankful and you've already seen I know that uh it really began four days ago but you've already seen more action than you have in the last three 3 months and we're going to get it together we're informing the Army Corps of Engineers to get going uh because you have a lot of river breaks and a lot of areas that you're going to need some pretty big work and they're on their way they're going to be uh working very much harder than they've been working in the past and we're going to take care of it uh any questions from the Press of any of the congressman Governor anybody sir you signed border on tea getting rid of it can you say more about signing executive order to get rid of FEMA please uh FEMA has been a very big disappointment they cost a tremendous amount of money it's very bureaucratic and it's very slow other than that we're very happy with them okay and I think it's I think when there's a uh when there's a problem with the state I think that that problem should be taken care of by the state that's what we have States for they take care of problem s and a government can handle something very quickly you know uh one of the things I've noticed cuz I've been doing this for a while and we had a pretty good FEMA but I also noticed that when they come they end up in arguments of they're fighting all the time over who does what it's just it's just not a good system uh this system is so beautifully designed over 250 years approximately you know and we'll soon be uh celebrating the 250th year it's going to be a very big celebration but it's been designed very well and we're going to leave it that way when North Carolina South Carolina Florida Tennessee when uh everybody knows the governor of Tennessee I think everybody do you you know everybody here pretty much he's I never thought of it but you're right over the ridge right over the right over the so you're here to help that's great the people in this region including Tennessee the people of Appalachia are grateful that you are here and then you haven't forgotten them and that there are other disasters but this one was enormous for both North Carolina and Tennessee so thank you you know I've seen a lot of disasters and this when I came I came here right after the day after and when I came here I couldn't believe it actually I couldn't believe the damage and I've seen a lot of them this was uh this was more like a tornado than it was what we witnessed so we're going to get it very much very much taken care of good job that's nice that you came and so you call it right you're right over the ridge right Tennessee I like Tennessee too let's see where did I get more votes Tennessee or North Carolina I hate I hate to tell you North Carolina it was Tennessee there's one of the counties in This Disaster that had 88% for you so 88% yeah it's it's the people are just incredible people yeah so uh do you have any questions press yes Mr President you talked about conditions being placed on a California vety and the like are there any conditions that you're going to put on Aid to North Carolina uh we're going to do a lot for North Carolina you know they've been very slow uh I I don't know why it's been so bad this has been one of the worst I've seen Katrina of course you know was uh some something that obviously that was a long time ago that was not good but this has been very slow I don't know if that was for political reasons because they lost the state you know Biden lost the state maybe he felt he doesn't care and maybe there were other reasons I don't know but this has been very slow by any standard this has been very slow and we're going to we're going to make up for loss time no conditions you're going to push for Aid just well in California I have a condition in California we want them to have voter ID so the people have a voice because right now the people don't have a voice because you don't know who's voting and it's very corrupt and we also want them to release the water if they released the water they wouldn't have had a problem if they released the water one I told them to because I told them to do it 7 years ago if they would done it you wouldn't have had the problem that you had you might have you might not have even had a fire so uh but here I don't have that it's a different thing you got hit by a storm the people are incredible they worked really well Franklin was fantastic and other groups by the way other groups came in that were also fantastic and other states came in Tennessee and a couple of others came in and they really helped that's the way it's supposed to be no this is a different kind of a thing Mr President have you decided how much funding you would allocate for disaster relase what about what have you decided how much money you would allocate for disaster I haven't I have to see what it is Mr I disappoint that Senator shf hasn't joined you on this trip it reported you invited Senator shf to join you on this trip and he was too busy are you disappoint I don't know I was told that shiff was going to travel with us to uh California I wasn't thrilled to be honest with you and I saw him last night on television it looks like he got hit with a baseball bat or something what happened to him something happened to him it was it looked like he got hit it looked like he got beat around but but uh I'll ask Caroline to find out what happened to him no if he wanted to come out I would have done that but uh I don't know somebody said that he wanted to come on the plane but I think he's staying back for the votes there's some pretty good votes going on yeah Mr President what is your timeline for getting rid of FEMA I I for the for this one for this one you just talked about possibly getting a few what timeline are you looking at and how would you do that well we're looking here here you're talking about to start we're going to start immediately timeline and to finish it's going to be a period of time you know people are also rebuilding their houses how long does it take to build a house right takes a time and I want them to build houses bigger better nicer than they had before so they can have least they get something out of this disaster this was a real disaster no timeline will be fast in terms of infrastructure strcture I think very fast uh I want to thank Elon because Elon was able to get us communication systems as you know starlink uh we had no communication the first day I got here I was asked by one of the people one of the really great Representatives professionals that is there any way you could get starlink here because they had no communication whatsoever and I called up Elon Musk and he had you know hundreds of units brought here like brought immediately and it's hard to get they couldn't get them before and that made a lot of difference I think it saved a lot of lives actually yeah infrastructure wise we'll do it quickly sir can you just talk about how long you might you think it might take to get rid of thema what's the timeline on that if we're going to roll it back yeah I would say uh look as far as I'm concerned uh I'm not really thinking about FEMA right now here I'm thinking about Michael Watley and I'm thinking about the three Congress people that you just heard from and also Al the other uh people in Congress and they'll be working with the governor they'll be working with the governor so that's what I see change the subject real quickly uh the lak Riley Act was signed by Mike speaker Johnson yesterday when do you when do you anticipate to put to sign that no well we're honored by that Lake and Riley I was there at the time and we had a big meeting with the parents right after that horrible thing took place and uh we have an act you all know what that that act represents and it was a bipartisan Bill many Democrats signed signed onto that's something that is a tribute to Laken a beautiful young lady who was killed viciously by an illegal alien and we passed a very powerful Bill and it was just approved and we'll have a ceremony sometime very shortly I'll be signing it in other words if you're asking I will definitely be signing it okay yeah Mr Pres the security detail for Anthony fouchi was terminated last night and I'm wondering if you have any comment on that about what uh the security detail for Anthony fouchy was terminated last night sir do you have a comment no I think you know when you work for govern government at some point your security detail comes off and you know you can't have them forever so I think it's very standard if it would be for somebody else who wouldn't be asking the question question is very fair but you know you for government we took some off other people too but you can't have a security detail for the rest of your life because you worked for government ask for off yeah we'll see what happens would you feel partially responsible something happen you say Dr Fouch or John Bolton no you know they all made a lot of money they can hire their own security too all the people you're talking about they can go out I can give some good numbers of very good security people they can hire their own security they all made a lot of money fouchy made a lot of money they all did so if they you know felt that strongly I I think that certainly I would not take responsibility now North Carolina is a state that relies on trade and Manufacturing are you going to have an announcement on new tariffs coming soon is there a timeline now yeah the tariffs are going to make our country Rich we're going to be a rich rich country very soon uh tariffs are going to make it rich and competence we have common sense competence and tariffs the word tariff is one of the most beautiful words in the dictionary now Jonathan Reynolds the the business secretary of the United Kingdom uh said that there's an even trade between the US and and the UK so they shouldn't have tariffs does trade imbalances or a balance trait affect uh tariffs and your decisions yeah unbalance and balance and also deficits like with Canada we lose $200 billion dollar a year with Canada that's because we allow them to make cars we allow them to take Lumber we don't need their cars we don't need their Lumber we don't need their food products because we make the same products right on the other side of the Border it's sort of crazy so we've just allowed that you know bad management has allowed it over the last four years in particular to become very imbalanced and I said to I call him Governor Trudeau but he's prime minister trudo when he was prime minister uh I asked him why would we do that why and he was unable to give me an answer he said uh I don't know and I said do you think it's fair that we're paying $200 billion to keep Canada going and what would happen I said I asked him what would happen if we didn't do that if we didn't subsidize Canada he said we'd be a failed nation and I said then you should be a state because why are we paying all of that money to Canada when you know we could use it ourselves right so uh we take care of their military you know we ow we're going to order about 40 Coast Guard big uh ice breakers big ones and all of a sudden Canada wants a piece of the deal they say why are we doing that I mean I like doing that if they're a state but I don't like doing that if they're a nation also they've been very nasty to us on trade historically Canada has been very very bad to us very unfair to us on trade so we'll see how it all works out the United I would love to see Canada be the 51st state uh the Canadian citizens of that happened would get a very big tax cut tremendous tax cut because they're very high highly taxed uh and you wouldn't have to worry about military you wouldn't have to worry about many of the things you'd have better health coverage you'd have much better health coverage so I think the people of Canada would like it you know if it's explained but uh just to start off they'd have a very they'd have a massive tax cut and they'd have a lot more business because then we'd let business go to Canada routinely and there'd be no tariffs you know if we we did that there'd be no tariffs the United Kingdom might be in a better spot then Rend Franken Graham has been a great asset to the state talk a little bit about the way Samaritan Pur has helped North Carolina yes say once again the first re Franklin Graham has been a big part of Samaritan purse and their aid to North Carolina just want to get your thoughts well Franklin graah has been a big asset to the state his father was a big asset to the state to the country both of them uh I just think this I think Franklin and and and other people that are doing what Franklin have done but you know I've known Franklin so long he was at the inauguration he made a speech beautiful speech beautiful prayer uh it just uh he does a great job and we gave we made a big donation and uh it was it was money well spent sometimes you make donations it's not well spent he's done a great job here he's done a really great job so I want to thank you we're going to the site now and one of the sites and we'll I think you'll for those that haven't seen it you won't even believe it but not enough work was done we'll get it done fast and I can speak for the Republican Congressman we're going to knock it out right we're going to knock it out and uh I think we take it very personally because it was North Carolina was very unfairly treated very very unfairly treated and it was obvious it was too obvious and we're going to make up for lost time so thank you to the people of North Carolina thank you everybody down
2025-01-27 23:53
