US disaster response agency under investigation, says Trump

HAMILTON, Canada

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that the US federal response agency is "under review and investigation."

Describing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as "slow and totally ineffective," Trump said on his Truth Social that "FEMA spent tens of millions of dollars in Democrat areas, disobeying orders, but left the people of North Carolina high and dry."

"It is now under review and investigation. The (Joe) Biden run FEMA has been a disaster. FEMA should be terminated!" he said, suggesting that "Individual states should handle storms, etc., as they come. Big savings, far more efficient!!!"

Trump's remarks come as the US grapples with increasingly severe natural disasters, from tornadoes in the Midwest, to hurricanes across the eastern seaboard and Gulf coast, and fires in the West.

Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), meanwhile, claimed that FEMA sent $59 million on “luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants."

"Sending this money violated the law and is in gross insubordination to the President’s executive order. That money is meant for American disaster relief and instead is being spent on high end hotels for illegals," Musk said on X on Monday.

Musk pledged to "clawback" the money due to alleged misuse.