Trump Admin Goes Full TACO on Killing FEMA After Texas Floods

The Trump administration is backing away from getting rid of the Federal Emergency Management Agency after months of vowing to abolish it.

As President Donald Trump headed to Texas to see the brutal effects of the floods firsthand, a senior White House official told The Washington Post the administration is focused on “rebranding” the disaster response agency instead of eliminating it entirely.

Trump brushed off Noem’s slow response by saying she was the “first one” he saw on television there. The homeland security secretary called CNN’s report “fake news” and “absolute trash.”

“We were right on time. We were there,” Trump told NBC News. “In fact, she was the first one I saw on television.”

The White House official emphasized to the Post that Trump will make the ultimate decision on FEMA but that the agency is not on track to be eliminated.

The official said the “theory” of the administration’s new approach is already “taking place in Texas” even “without any official action.”

“The president immediately delivered the dollars, Texas already has that money in their hands, and Gov. [Greg] Abbott is the lead decision-maker when it comes to the Texas floods,” the official told the Post. “You should expect this structure, that has quietly taken place, to continue.”

Trump first teased FEMA’s destruction in January, saying it was “frankly...not good” and that “the FEMA thing has not been a very successful experiment.”

In an executive order shortly after his inauguration, he said he would “begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA, or maybe getting rid of FEMA.”

His warning prompted nationwide outrage, especially in states like California where natural disasters like fires have razed entire communities this year.

FEMA coordinates federal response to any disasters that receive a presidential disaster declaration and works closely with state officials to mitigate hazards and rescue people in need. The assistance includes providing housing repairs, covering medical expenses, removing debris, rebuilding public infrastructure, covering medical expenses, and paying for funerals.

FEMA has been pivotal in the communities’ fates after disasters like Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy, and some of the most deadly earthquakes and wildfires in California. It currently has staff deployed to help people battle severe storms or tornadoes in Tennesee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Kentucky, Missouri, and more.

The shift on FEMA would not be Trump’s first switch-up: The president has already made his indecision a pattern since taking office. He has reversed his policies on tariffs several times in a series of flip-flops that left fellow world leaders and even some staff members confused.

His constant reversal has become so frequent that it was given a name: TACO, short for Trump Always Chickens Out. The viral social media phrase was coined after Trump issued tariffs on imports in April and then changed his mind a week later.

White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson slammed The Washington Post’s article when asked to comment on the piece: “Unfortunately the Washington Post’s headline did not accurately characterize the Trump Administration’s continued efforts to overhaul FEMA and make it actually work for the American people, instead of the status quo: a bloated bureaucracy that disincentivized state investment in their own resilience,” she said.

Jackson said that “President Trump is committed to right-sizing the Federal government while empowering State and local governments by enabling them to better understand, plan for, and ultimately address the needs of their citizens.”

She added that the FEMA Review Council will recommend to Trump how FEMA may be reformed in ways that “best serve the national interest” and ensuring that the “Federal role remains supplemental and appropriate to the scale of disaster.”

The FEMA Review Council is expected to release a report in November with recommendations on improving federal disaster response.