(Reuters) – The acting head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency wrote to staff reassuring them that the agency’s continued existence was vital to the country’s disaster response efforts, after President Donald Trump said he wanted to overhaul or scrap it.
“FEMA is a critical agency which performs an essential mission in support of our national security,” said Cam Hamilton, a former Navy SEAL, who was appointed by Trump to temporarily lead the agency after the Republican president took office last week.
Hamilton sent the email to all staff on Friday night after earlier in the day Trump, during a visit to disaster areas in North Carolina and California, vowed to sign an executive order to overhaul or eliminate the main federal agency that responds to natural disasters.
“FEMA has turned out to be a disaster,” Trump said during a tour of a North Carolina neighborhood destroyed by September’s Hurricane Helene. “I think we…
