“FEMA has turned out to be a disaster,” Trump said in North Carolina on Friday while on a multistate tour to areas still recovering from the effects of last year’s Hurricane Helene and the ongoing wildfires near Los Angeles. “I think we recommend that FEMA go away.”

President Donald Trump has put the Federal Emergency Management Agency in his crosshairs. The department is responsible for coordinating relief and rescue efforts in the event of natural disasters, but Trump has often criticized FEMA as ineffective and a waste of money and questioned whether it should exist at all.

SWANNANOA, N.C. (AP) — President Donald Trump said he was considering “getting rid of” the Federal Emergency Management Agency during a trip to disaster zones Friday, offering the latest sign of how he is weighing sweeping changes to the nation’s central organization for responding to disasters.