Trump looks to North Carolina as he tries to contrast his leadership with Democrats’

CNN
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President Donald Trump on Friday is set to visit North Carolina — a state he said “has been abandoned by the Democrats” as it rebuilds from Hurricane Helene’s flooding — with questions about disaster relief taking center stage in his first days back in office.

Trump will then travel to California, where wildfires have ravaged the Los Angeles area, as Republicans on Capitol Hill begin to navigate between conservatives’ desire for spending cuts and Trump’s pledges to help both places rebuild.

The trip will be Trump’s first outside Washington since his inauguration on Monday.

By visiting North Carolina, a swing state he’s won three times, the president is seeking to draw clear contrasts with former President Joe Biden, whose administration’s management of the flooding he called “so bad,” and Democratic leaders in California, whose handling of the wildfires he has repeatedly lambasted.

In a Wednesday interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Trump said the Federal Emergency Management Agency is “getting in the way of everything” in North Carolina, and — without explaining how — claimed that Democrats used the agency “not to help.”

“I’m stopping in North Carolina — first stop, because those people were treated very badly by Democrats,” Trump said. “And I’m stopping there, we’re going to get that thing straightened out, because they’re still suffering from a hurricane from months ago.”

FEMA says about 13,000 western North Carolina households have used its transitional shelter assistance program — and an agency official said in a letter to Democratic Gov. Josh Stein on Sunday it is extending the program until May 26. However, some displaced residents who spoke to CNN said they are uncertain about their futures and frustrated by struggles to get timely answers about what kinds of assistance they are eligible for and when that assistance ends.

In the immediate aftermath of the hurricane’s flooding, an unprecedented amount of misinformation circulated about the storm and the federal government’s response — including claims that FEMA funds were being directed to migrant services instead of recovery efforts and claims that survivors were only eligible for $750 in assistance. Trump amplified many of those false claims.

Now he’s hitting the road after also focusing on disaster aid and how to fund it in his meeting Tuesday with House and Senate Republican leadership.

Trump spoke extensively about both aid for California and disasters in North Carolina — as well as how and whether to fund what’s expected to be billions of dollars in relief, a person in the room said.

However, with Republicans now controlling both chambers of Congress, and conservatives demanding that spending be reined in, Trump and congressional leaders will also have to find ways to offset the disaster relief spending.

Multiple GOP leaders stressed in Tuesday’s meeting that they needed to be “cognizant of how we pay for the bills,” the person in the room said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, according to the attendee, said of the next Congress: “We have got to get our spending under control.”

Both Trump and Johnson have criticized California’s water management, and Johnson said lawmakers could put conditions on disaster relief for the state. Several Republicans who won close House races in California have pushed back, including Rep. Young Kim, who represents a battleground district in Orange County.

“We cannot play politics with Americans’ livelihoods,” Kim said Thursday on X. “If more federal aid is needed to support first responders combatting wildfires, we must deliver.”

Trump is seeking to have much of his agenda win passage on Capitol Hill as part of a reconciliation spending bill. He told reporters on Tuesday he believes requests from Democrats for fire aid for the Los Angeles area will make passing that major bill “simpler.”

“They’re going to need a lot of money, and generally speaking, I think you find that a lot of Democrats are going to be asking for help,” Trump said.

In the interview with Hannity, he claimed that while Democrats will seek federal aid for California, Democrats also “don’t care” about North Carolina.

The president also previewed what he said will be a broader debate over the role of FEMA and the federal government in managing disasters.

He said FEMA “has not done their job for the last four years,” and said the agency “is a whole ‘nother discussion, because all it does is complicate everything.”

“It gets in the way,” Trump said. “And FEMA is going to be a whole big discussion very shortly, because I’d rather see the states take care of their own problems.”

CNN has reached out to FEMA about Trump’s comments.

For the California leg of his tour, Trump invited his longtime foe, California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff, to accompany him, Schiff’s office told CNN. The senator “greatly appreciates” the offer but is unable to join because of scheduled nomination votes, a spokesperson said.

The extension of an invitation to Schiff, while surprising, could signal Trump and his team’s efforts to make Trump’s visits to North Carolina and Los Angeles feel more presidential despite Trump’s repeated criticism and condemnation over Democratic leaders’ handling of the recovery efforts.

One Trump official told CNN the goal is to have the president stay focused on the communities affected and not personal attacks, “though they are justified,” the official asserted.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose leadership during the wildfires Trump has repeatedly criticized, intends to greet Trump at the airport when he arrives.

“I look forward to being there on the tarmac to thank the president, welcome him and we’re making sure that all the resources he needs for a successful briefing are provided to him. There’s no limit to the resources we’ll provide for that briefing,” Newsom said following a news briefing Thursday, during which he signed a pair of bills allocating $2.5 billion in state recovery.

CNN’s Alayna Treene and Hanna Park contributed to this report.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.