I’d rather see the states take care of their own problems,” the president said. Federal emergency managers from both parties have made the same argument.

Since former President Jimmy Carter created FEMA in 1979, it has become a massive federal agency with a budget of $29.5 billion in fiscal 2023.

Trump attacked FEMA, saying the agency has not done its “job for the last four years,” and suggested without evidence that Democrats did not care about disasters in states like North Carolina—which has a Democratic governor—but are eager to get federal support to deal with the Los Angeles fires.