US Ready For Any Natural Disaster- MAGA Style- Means NOT READY & In Disarray
S. E. Anderson
08.05.2026
Hurricane Trump. A blistering new report from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) found the Trump administration’s gutting of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has left the nation ill-prepared to deal with new natural disasters, as wildfires rage across the country and the peak of hurricane season approaches. The report said FEMA shed more than 2,500 employees this year, while hiring only 134 new employees, bringing the total workforce to less than 22,000 people (down from more than 25,000 in 2025). Those staffing cuts have resulted in a “loss of institutional knowledge and experienced personnel” that has “exacerbated long-standing workforce challenges,” the GAO said. The audit found FEMA to be rudderless after then-acting administrator David Richardson rescinded the agency’s strategic plan last year. No new plan has been put forward.
The GAO said FEMA officials feel as if they’re “wandering around in the dark” and that there’s “no overall strategic direction on which to base workforce planning.” The agency has effectively been without a permanent leader since President Joe Biden left office. Trump fired the first person he appointed as acting administrator, Cameron Hamilton, last year, only to renominate him this year (although Hamilton still hasn’t been brought before the full Senate for a confirmation vote).
The Trump administration has also been redirecting FEMA personnel and resources away from its core mission in order to support its immigration raids and deportation efforts, according to an investigation led by House Democrats and based on testimony from whistleblowers.
The GAO report comes as wildfires rage across the Pacific Northwest, with thick smoke hanging over large swaths of Oregon and Washington. Trump this week authorized federal disaster assistance for the fires that have ravaged Spokane, Washington. Meanwhile, hurricane season peaks in September and runs through October, and in a sign of the times, a jet charter company is now offering private evacuation flights out of Florida.
s. e. anderson
author of The Black Holocaust for Beginners
"If WORK was good for you, the rich would leave none for the poor." (Haiti)
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