7 Weeks Out From Hurricane Season, Fmr. Senator Kickass T. Horsefucker Considering Cutting +/- Half Of 20,000 FEMA Staff

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But there is likely another, more personal reason Trump set his sights on terminating the agency. Days before the presidential election, as FEMA employees responded to Hurricane Milton in Florida, a supervisor instructed hurricane responders to skip over homes displaying election campaign signs supporting Donald Trump. The worker was fired, and an internal investigation found no proof that such guidance had been issued agency-wide. But Trump has a memory like an elephant. “I believe candidate Trump took it personally … this put FEMA in his sights, so I believe he thought FEMA had become politicized and it had to be addressed,” Michael Coen, a former FEMA chief of staff in the Obama and Biden administrations, told me. “Couple that with Project 2025, calling for having to rein in spending of FEMA over the year, because of the complexity and increased strength of the risk that this country has seen.”

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The agency is now considering cutting thousands of FEMA jobs, with some reports saying cuts could affect half of the agency’s more than 20,000-person workforce by October. Former employees say a cut that size would be devastating, not only to disaster response on the ground, but to helping localities get the funding they need to restore infrastructure and rebuild homes. “It would be significant,” said Coen. “It would slow down and cause frustration with states, whether it’s for preparing for disasters, responding to disasters, or mitigating future risks.” Already, FEMA jobs dropped from roughly 25,800 in January 2025 to 23,350 by June of that year, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office. FEMA’s records were taken by force by DOGE staffers, who gained access to data on disaster survivors and sensitive grant programs, according to four current and two former FEMA officials.

FEMA serves communities hit by disasters, including floods, wildfires, hurricanes, and tornadoes. As climate change makes extreme weather events more frequent, intense, destructive, and deadly, FEMA has been increasingly strained to address them. The agency had a $33.1 billion budget in fiscal year 2025—the same year the U.S. experienced at least 23 separate weather and climate events with damages exceeding $1 billion, with 276 deaths and a total cost of $115 billion, according to Climate Central. The disparity in funding versus damage highlights just how challenging and expensive it is to respond and rebuild after modern-day disasters.

The agency, admittedly, has shown real cracks in the system at times. For example, FEMA was sued for causing expensive flood insurance—often seen as insurance of the last resort—due to the agency’s new risk estimates. But while Trump administration officials have blasted FEMA as inefficient and costly, some of the president’s own advisors have disagreed with dissolving the agency—even at the cost of retaliation. Cameron Hamilton, former acting FEMA administrator, was removed one day after telling Congress the agency should not be eliminated because it helped communities “in their greatest times of need.”

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https://atmos.earth/political-landscapes/fema-in-the-crosshairs-as-climate-disasters-worsen/

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