Some More News - Some More News: Donald Trump's Attacks on FEMA and the National Weather Service Put Us All At Risk

Episode Date: July 23, 2025

Hi. On today's episode, we look at the Trump administration's cuts to FEMA, the NOAA, and the National Weather Service, and ask why on earth would anyone want to get rid of these valuable, non-political entities that only exist to help people? Get the world's news at https://ground.news/SMN to compare coverage and see through biased coverage. Subscribe for 40% off unlimited access through our link.Hosted by Cody JohnstonExecutive Producer - Katy StollDirected by Will GordhWritten by Erik BarnesProduced by Jonathan HarrisEdited by Gregg MellerPost-Production Supervisor / Motion Graphics & VFX - John ConwayResearcher - Marco Siler-GonzalesGraphics by Clint DeNiscoHead Writer - David Christopher BellPATREON: https://patreon.com/somemorenewsMERCH: https://shop.somemorenews.comYOUTUBE MEMBERSHIP: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvlj0IzjSnNoduQF0l3VGng/join#somemorenews #DonaldTrump #FEMABring on the good vibes and treat yourself to Soul today! Right now, Soul is offering our audience 30% off your entire order! Go to https://GetSoul.com and use the code MORENEWS.Pluto TV. Stream Now. Pay Never.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

More power! Ha ha! Toss some blood on there. Toss more blood on the pile. Good. Now stick your thumb in there. Keep it there. I'll be back. Hey everyone. Just spending time with a nephew building a weather machine.

You know, to harness the power of lightning. Like that guy in the Avengers. Forget his name. Sean Connery played him. Anyway, I just figured I'd pitch in what with the weather being all bad Avengers. Forget his name. Sean Connery played him. Anyway, I just figured I'd pitch in what with the weather being all bad lately, those Texas floods come to mind. But of course, disasters like that happen

so frequently nowadays that there will probably be another since the time the script for this episode was written, blessed by a satanic priest, shot, edited, and released. Sure are a lot of emergencies happening more often, all over the country in fact. We could maybe really use a federal agency to manage these emergencies. We could call it fame!

Sorry? Like the leg bone? Oh, well, that's fine too. Hey, great news everyone. FEMA is going away? Wait, that's not good. That's opposite. Also, here's some other news.

Climate change. It's bad. It's exactly why those flash floods in Texas happened, in that extreme rainstorms are one of the consequences of our warming climate. Basically, a whole lot of water came down in only a matter of hours. That water funneled to nearby rivers, which in some places rose to nearly 30 feet. Again, in just a few hours. It was extremely hard to predict, although Ted Cruz seems to plan his vacations specifically

around disasters, so maybe we can replace our weather services with just constantly asking him if he has any plans for the weekend. But don't worry, he returned as fast as humanly possible when he heard about it, aka three days after. And if you're wondering, because people wondered, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Weather Service were allegedly functioning properly and had yet to be affected by specifically Trump's upcoming budget cuts,

although were likely affected by the earlier Doge staffing cuts. So, cool. Because it turns out that 3-Day Ted actually pushed to remove $150 million in weather forecasting funding in that big, beautiful bill. Funding that would quote, accelerate advances and improvements in research,

observation systems, modeling, forecasting, assessments, and dissemination of information to the public, end quote. And again, Ted helped to get rid of that. Weird that he and the GOP in general keep winning elections in places that experience weather. So yeah, we're gonna talk about all this, as well as FEMA's long history of being its own disaster and the GOP's weird inability to fund it.

Ever since Guinea worm Hitler created the agency in 1979, FEMA has been kneecapped with an aluminum bat taken to physical therapy, kneecapped again, but with a Whiffleball bat, so it's not as much, but then really kneecapped with steel rebar, and now it's just crawling around begging for help while we watch to see if Trump steps on its head. It had a lot of ups and downs is my point,

because FEMA's funding is not only dependent on the amount of disasters that year, but on who is in charge. Democrat presidents tend to ask Congress for more money for FEMA, but not always. But also, everyone gets around to funding it at some point, usually after something bad happens and everyone gets mad at them. For example, Bush originally did budget cuts, but then suddenly increased FEMA money around 2005 for some reason. I wonder why. Obama proposed very slight funding cuts, and not nearly as much as the Republicans wanted.

Trump, of course, cut funding in his first term. Biden didn't cut funding, but then FEMA blew almost half of its budget in just eight days. It's very irresponsible of them to splurge like that. The weather should be more orderly. Of course, that's the thing. Weather doesn't care who the president is. It doesn't care about state lines. It doesn't care about balancing a budget. And so it's hard to know when FEMA needs money or when it doesn't. Although red states do tend to need their help more, so you'd think Republicans would be more supportive about this.

Anyway, the money that FEMA allocates and distributes is through the Disaster Relief Fund. From 1992 to 2021, Congress appropriated around $470 billion in 2022 dollars to the DRF, with about 44% of its funds used to provide relief after hurricane damage. That said, the largest appropriation on record for DRF funds went toward COVID, which distributed $67 billion during the peak of the pandemic, the majority of that $67 billion going to expanded unemployment benefits. Now, in order for Congress to allocate funds, the president, currently this guy, has to declare a major emergency or disaster in the affected area, after which the federal government usually takes 75% or more of the cost to provide assistance and relief to homeowners,

business owners, and state and local governments. It's like a big money jar everyone can take from in case of an emergency, but only if the one guy in charge says it's an emergency. And now, that guy doesn't want anyone to use the jar. We want to wean off of FEMA and we want to bring it down to the state level. A little bit like education, we're moving it back to the states. I don't know, maybe he means wean like the band, but even then he probably just means push the little daisies because we're all dead, you see.

Or maybe he means weaner. He's gonna weaner off of FEMA anyway. We'll circle back to Trump's wean. See, when you're trying to doge the government, FEMA can be a bit frustrating. It's unpredictable how much funding it needs, except it's also kind of not. Because lately, FEMA has needed more and more money, and its services have strained,

as over the years there have been more frequent and more intense disasters for unknown reasons. It's getting more expensive. If you're trying to slash the budget to pay for mass deportations, I'm sure that can be a pesky problem. We've increased from an average of 39 disaster declarations annually during the 80s and 90s to an average of 63 disasters every year over the last 10 years. It's no one's fault, except ExxonMobil. Since 2020, annual DRF obligations have exceeded over $40 billion per year, and there hasn't been adequate staffing to keep up with the constant demand. In 2024 alone, there were 27 confirmed climate disasters that exceeded $1 billion in damages,

which is a statistic the federal government will no longer track, by the way. Hey, that'll fix it. You can't break climate records if you burn the records. Everything's fine, see? Oh, God, no, wait. As you can see on this map, which again likely won't be updated, the majority of those costly disaster declarations

to FEMA occurred in, as we said, red states such as Florida, Louisiana, and Tennessee, even though Republicans have, as we keep saying, traditionally blocked FEMA funding for various reasons for over a decade plus. That's going to be a bit of a theme in this episode. Weather doesn't care where you stand politically or what state lines are. It's also worth noting that cutting FEMA doesn't actually save money or make the government more efficient.

Having a strong federal agency to address natural disasters is actually cheaper for taxpayers. FEMA can delegate certain tasks to other organizations, like sending the Army Corps of Engineers to remove toxic debris after the California wildfires instead of relying on the state to find similar experts in a slower, less efficient, and ultimately more expensive job. Small towns, cities, and heck, most states don't have an adequate tax base to fund the recovery needed after weather-based disasters. So weaning states off of FEMA is a little like weaning a child off of water.

I mean, it'll solve the child's problems. I guess. Eventually. Excruciatingly. Point is, you can't kick everything to the states. Sorry. A lot of them, mainly red states, simply don't have the money to handle a disaster. So it's pretty weird that the GOP would want this. It's like they've seen way too many of those election maps where they tried to make it look like land can vote. If we kick this to the states, conservatives would die. But at least liberals will get to scream, you voted for this at their corpses. That'll help.

And look, this isn't to say that FEMA is perfect. I mean, according to the X-Files movie, it's actually our shadow government. But aside from that, when it's funded and operated properly, it tends to actually help. You know, if that's the case. Because everyone remembers Hurricane Katrina, right? For you disgusting youngs,

that's the one that left 80% of Nolans underwater causing 1,833 deaths and over $100 billion in damage. George Bush didn't care about black people, if you recall. That guy loves Hitler now, by the way. Check out his new Netflix movie, Austin Powers, Moon Riker. But yeah, obviously, FEMA was too busy ushering in the alien apocalypse to do its job. Or rather, FEMA's response to the disaster was garbled because it had been recently folded into the then-new Department of Homeland Security, which didn't have a set chain of command to respond to disasters. We talked about this in our ICE episode. The forming of the DHS was largely nonsense, and perhaps a lot of problems today could be

attributed to George W. Bush. But anyway, when Hurricane Katrina hit, FEMA did a poor job. To hear Bush's former policy advisor tell it, a lot of that was due to chain of command. FEMA had recently become part of the newly created Department of Homeland Security, and so the chain of command issues also came into play there as well. And so instructions would be given from Washington that would change on the ground and then coordinating with local and state officials became almost impossible because of the corruption and troubles that they had within their own governments. And pardon the expression, but it was a perfect storm.

So there were failures on a local level, which is exactly why you can't leave it up to the states, provided FEMA actually works. And in this case, they not only failed to respond in time or meet the supply demands, but they also seemed totally blindsided by the event, which they super shouldn't have been. It's not so much a perfect storm as it was a failure on the highest level, which scans because the people in charge of FEMA at the time were in no way experienced in disaster response. Instead, they were appointees from President George W. Bush,

including FEMA Chief Michael Brown, whose previous job before overseeing disaster response was policing judges in Arabian horse competitions. Really, he was a horse judge. No, I'm sorry, not a horse judge. He judged other horse judges, you see. Every line in this article about it is a banger. Here's one, quote,

"'I wouldn't have regarded his position "'in the horse industry as a platform "'to where he is now,' said Tom Connolly, "'a former association president.' "'Ah, but there are conflicting views here. Quote, Andrew Lester, an Oklahoma lawyer who's been Brown's friend for more than 20 years, said the progression from horse shows

to hurricanes was natural. Horse guy, literal horse shit. It also didn't help that FEMA's reorganization into the Department of Homeland Security included centralizing many FEMA programs into their Washington, D.C. headquarters, rather than having them readily available in regional offices to stay connected to local governments. Not to mention simply knowing the area and the people there. You gotta get to know the people judging the horses if you want to be a good horse judge,

judge. See, this is why a decentralized agency like the Coast Guard did a significantly better job responding to Katrina. Even that policy advisor points that out. FEMA failed at very basic things, such as how many supplies were needed or even where the supplies had to go. For example, they sent millions of pounds of ice to cities that were nowhere near the disaster area. I guess that's good if they need to make a lot

of piña coladas. They were getting caught in the rain after all. Oh, good one, Cody. People died because of this. And yet Brown was told he did a heck of a job by Prezzy Bush Dub J, presumably because there was no trace of any cheating horse judges in New Orleans. And this, disgusting kids, is how heck of a job literally now means fuck up in political

speak. And so Brown resigned, and lawmakers proceeded to take this stuff more seriously starting with the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006. Among the changes made over the years included establishing 10 regional FEMA offices throughout the country with their own regional coordinator and disability coordinator, while also mandating that FEMA be able to make pet and animal rescues, since reportedly, 44% of people who refused to evacuate during Hurricane Katrina stayed put out of concern for leaving their pets behind.

And like, yeah, no shit. You think I'm gonna leave my dog behind? Pets are animals we trapped for fun and validation. We kind of owe it to them. Plus, she's the only one who knows all my passwords. Wolf 69 420! Great, now I have to change them all. So that's Katrina. And a key lesson there is that FEMA has to be federally funded while being regionally constructed.

It sounds like a contradiction kind of, but it simply means that state taxes aren't always sufficient enough to pay for something that needs to be managed on a more state level. Also, maybe have actual experts in charge and not horse guys that the president knows, and again, not even a horse guy, but a horse guy guy. But, learning those lessons did make FEMA more efficient and helpful when Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012. For example, they had actual experts with experience navigating and responding to natural disasters in leadership positions rather than horse-cop cops.

On top of that, FEMA was more proactive rather than reactive. Instead of waiting until after the storm hit, FEMA had food, water, supplies, and cots ready to distribute. They also actively put personnel in place in the areas within the hurricane's path. The organization even had President Obama sign disaster declarations before data about the damage was fully collected in order to help cut through bureaucratic paperwork—an abundance of disaster declarations, if you will—and get DRF money funneled to local governments and disaster victims much more quickly.

While FEMA's response to Hurricane Sandy still wasn't perfect, it was much, much better than its response to Hurricane Katrina. Of course, FEMA is all about the aftermath, cleaning up after the disaster, like how Marvel has that damage control group that cleans up after Tony Stark,

who coincidentally owns that company. Jail Tony Stark, dig him up and jail him. But the reason FEMA was so prepared for Sandy is because, wouldn't you know it, someone was also in charge of predicting disasters. That's where we get the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Their entire job is to monitor weather

patterns in the most high-tech ways possible. Remember that movie Twister, or to a lesser extent that movie Twisters? Their attempt to stick a device in a tornado was based on real science that NOAA already did. They literally made a Dorothy, or as the Princess Bride's husband who was in it for the money not the science called it, the DOT-3 it for the money, not the science, called it the Dot Three. Although the NOAA called theirs Toto, I of course assume some dread-greedy science pretender called theirs the Tot Zero.

My point is, I think, movies are real life. Anywho, a 2022 study found that NOAA forecast improvements saved Americans $7 billion since 2009, as in $7 billion in property damage, just from better warnings. Also, probably a bunch of lives, but in America, we only care about dollar amounts. So $7 billion, folks! Seems good. Seems like we need stuff like the National Weather Service, which only costs the average American a whopping $4 a year through their taxes. Accurate weather forecasts continuously help people to prepare for the worst and evacuate in time, or, on the other end of the spectrum, ease people from panicking with constant up-to-date information like it did for Hurricane Dorian. It's a good system, one that this weather pervert used to update viewers during that

aforementioned 2019 storm. And there is a lot of anxiety out there. Because you don't see it turning. Right? When is it going to turn? John, it's not turning. It's coming straight to us. It's going to turn.

Alright? The turn was never forecast to be on Sunday. The turn isn't even on Monday morning. The turn will come Monday afternoon, Monday evening, into Tuesday. See? That's meteorologist John Morales assuring South Florida that the hurricane wasn't going to hit them. Good for him and his Tim Burton tie.

That's just one example of this system working. There are many others, but just for fun, let's keep playing this clip. Remember that? That was about six years ago. That was Hurricane Dorian as it was absolutely devastating. The Northwest Bahamas as a category five sat over that region for two days. And as you've grown accustomed've g presentations over my 34 newscasts, confidently I told you it's going to tu to worry. It is going to

to tell you that I'm not this year. Let's talk abo cuts to the National We to Noah. Did you know south florida National We are currently basically 2 understaffed from Tampa t the Miami office, 20 to 4 this type of staffing sh

impacts across the nation because there's been a nearly 20% reduction in weather balloon releases, launches, that carry those radio signs. And what we're starting to see is that the quality of the forecast is becoming degraded. Wow. Just an aside, but that dude is such a weatherman. Anyway, bad sign when your local meteorologist has to do a forecast on his lack of funding. Like looking at the weather shouldn't be a political job, right?

And yet, here we are, with that poor cloud pervert with his woke pink tie having to explain to South Florida why he can't protect them anymore. So it's time to get into that. It's time to get into the FEMA cuts, and it's time to ask why the GOP is so weirdly against backing an extremely necessary and apolitical agency. Well, it's time to get into ads. Then it's time to get into the rest

and then probably another ad break and then another segment and then the conclusion, credits, post credits, et cetera. Forecast calls for a sprinkling of ads that should come to landfall right about... Right about... Right about... If you're anything like me,

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Did I? Yeah, that's why you got blood on your one piece shirt, genius. Welcome back. I told you those ads were coming and they came true. So good forecast from your pal Cody. We were talking about FEMA and how we need it because of the more frequent natural disasters

and natural disasters in general. There's like a chance that one happened during that break. Thoughts and prayers for whatever bad thing happened during the ads. Well, not for the bad thing, but for people who experienced the bad thing that may have occurred during the ads. You know what I mean?

Now it's time to talk about the Trump of it all. As we keep mentioning, DOGE happened. And is happening. Since Trump took office, the National Weather Service has lost nearly 600 staffers and left many workers operating part-time. A leaked memo from the Office of Management and Budget showed that Trump planned to gut NOAA's funding by 27% across the board, but also specifically slash 74% of the budget allocated for NOAA's primary science division, the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. While all of these plans were leaked in the memo, the focus was mostly targeting NOAA's 57-year-old partnership with Princeton University, which operates one of the most extensive

and accurate climate modeling and climate forecasting systems in the world. Now, this was done in the name of budget cuts, but likely, allegedly, but likely, this could be because of the president of Princeton University refusing to bend the knee to Trump over DEI and other issues. But you know, it's not like Trump is known

for being really petty or insecure or anything. Temperance Trump, they call him. Now, most of these cuts start next year, which is why they didn't contribute to the flood response in Texas. It's probably gonna be something we slowly notice and then very quickly notice when the next Katrina hits. There's hopefully a chance

that we'll see some backtracking here on account of everything we said about how weather isn't political, but does tend to affect red states more. I mean, if that were reversed and blue states were more affected, well, we can probably imagine what would happen there. But right now, these cuts have even rattled some Republican lawmakers, in Oklahoma and Louisiana for example. The good thing is that there was enough blowback that NOAA is now rehiring some positions to stabilize frontline operations to prepare for the summer hurricane season, which is, spoiler, above normal this year. Of course, the organizations are still significantly shorthanded. Seems like we should

have, for decades, been increasing the budgets to these organizations as climate change got worse. But we didn't. We did the opposite of that. And now Trump wants to kill FEMA, sorry, wean FEMA. Back in March of this year, Trump signed an executive order to pass the disaster buck

onto state and local governments. He's essentially telling them to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and not expect any emergency financial help after a disaster, which, hey, what do you know happens to coincide with Project 2025. Yeah, no doubt it would be easier for the federal budget if we, like, didn't help with disasters and let states pay for it. And I guess the poor states can just eat a turd? Sounds very Republican indeed. Of course, Kristi Noem also expressed a desire to kill FEMA

like it's a puppy in a gravel pit. For the record, they can't really do this without congressional approval, but it's not like that stopped them so far. Also, as the Supreme Court has now made clear, they could just keep firing everyone who works there and effectively shut it down. In the meantime, Noem enacted a new rule saying that she must personally approve any grant requests over $100,000.

Now if you remember, with Hurricane Sandy, FEMA did the opposite, getting ahead of the storm and streamlining the process to get aid to affected areas. This however adds a new hurdle. Disaster aid is now only as fast as Kristi Noem's work schedule, which unfortunately also gets in the way of Kristi Noem's cosplay hobby. And wouldn't you know it, this is exactly why FEMA dragged ass with the recent Texas floods, taking 72 hours before Noem approved search and rescue teams. It's funny how they keep talking about efficiency and then doing the literal opposite of it.

But of course, it's not actually about efficiency. It's about breaking FEMA. Just listen to the new FEMA administrator, David Richardson, who gave a completely batshit speech back in May. This is a 17 minute long speech that was given to thousands of FEMA personnel, both at FEMA headquarters in Washington, DC and throughout the country,

that current FEMA employees describe to me as being unhinged, terrifying and threatening. And Juliette, during his address, he told FEMA employees, quote, I and I alone speak for FEMA. He went on to say that he has never read a book on leadership before, but is fine operating in chaos. The former Marine also warned his new coworkers not to get in his way as he works to reform and reduce the size of this agency. Take a listen.

There's somewhere south of 20% that decide that they are going to get in the way, change. You can ask anybody that those 20% of people are a problem. And they have to be sidelined. So don't get in my way. If you're those 20% of people, you're one of those 20% of people. And you think those tactics and of the people. If you're one of those 20% of the people and you think those tactics and techniques are going to help you, they will not because I will run right over you. I will achieve the president's intent.

My goodness. If you're wondering, Richardson is a former Marine Corps combat officer and not a disaster relief coordinator. But I guess at least he's not a horse judge. Sorry, a disaster relief coordinator. But I guess at least he's not a horse judge. Sorry, judge of horse judges. But yeah, dude's a Chris Cooper character. Look at him. What a freaking villain. He was, apparently, a no-show for the Texas floods because he very clearly isn't there to care about disaster relief, right? To be fair and balanced, he did eventually show up, albeit dressed like he's got a ventriloquist dummy that does close-up magic on cruise ships. He's there to hate and kill FEMA. He's openly antagonistic toward his own staff, and since taking over, about 2,000

out of roughly 6,100 FEMA employees have either been fired or quit. Folks in local emergency management have said that they've been flat out ghosted by FEMA at this point. This is a clear effort to sabotage the agency until they can eliminate it. The previous leader, before Richardson, was likely fired for literally just saying that FEMA should exist. Really. He testified to a House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing that, quote, I do not believe it is in the best interests

of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and then was let go. When asked why, the White House Press Secretary said, also, quote, my understanding is that this individual testified saying something that was contrary to what the president believes. It's sabotage, not in the fun way with the fake mustaches,

sabotage disguised as cutting waste, otherwise known as everything Doge is doing too. Richardson's leadership is already implementing new sweeping reforms, like discontinuing door-to-door outreach during a disaster as part of its attempts to get rid of wasteful stuff or whatever or abuse, I don't know, woke things. Door-to-door canvassing not only allows disaster victims

to get help registering for aid, but also helps the disabled, elderly, and the most vulnerable that aren't readily able to reach disaster recovery centers themselves. This reform and others were outlined in the Trump administration's 2026 budget, which was against… Woke FEMA grant programs. Again, really.

The Trump administration's justification for $646 million of non-disaster FEMA cuts was when, quote, FEMA discriminated against Americans who voted for the president in the wake of recent hurricanes, skipping over their homes when providing aid. This activity will no longer be tolerated." End quote. This is referring to a single isolated incident

in which a FEMA official advised workers to avoid approaching houses displaying Trump or MAGA yard signs during the aftermath of Hurricane Milton. This worker was fired. And on paper, that makes sense. As I keep saying, weather is non-political, and so too should be weather response. But of course, there was no evidence found that there was a sweeping mandate within FEMA to avoid people with pro-Trump signs in their yards. And it's worth noting that even in this isolated case, the worker claimed that avoiding

MAGGI yards wasn't due to politics, but for safety. Washington says as per FEMA practice, they look at community trends when visiting impacted residents and if they notice a trend in a specific area, they will issue a directive to keep FEMA teams safe, no matter what the political leaning of a location is. She says in this most recent deployment, her team specifically dealt with these problems at homes with Trump signs.

That's why she said she issued this directive. Now in the interview, Washington noted in previous deployments, FEMA teams have issued similar directives for homes with Biden-Harris or Harris-Wall signs due to hostility the crews met. She also claims there have also been similar directives in areas with no political signs.

I don't know, man, that does seem a little arbitrary if they also did it for Biden signs, but again, that employee was fired, which of course didn't stop conservative news outlets from losing their damn minds over it. I wonder if the Daily Wire is just as mad at the GOP for withholding aid for the California fires, or when 58 GOP representatives voted against aid for Hurricane Sandy and not Hurricane Katrina. I wonder what's different about New York and New Jersey. Anyway, it's just obvious baby shit is my point.

Trump found a single instance of one FEMA official acting in a partisan way and is going to use that to launch a petty and extremely partisan attack at the entire agency. But this goes beyond one agency or even NOAA or the National Weather Service. He pulled $18 billion worth of grant funding for disaster prevention, he's gutted staff and funding in other disaster response-related wings of the EPA, Army Corps of Engineers, and the Small Business Administration. He's also canceled or attempted to withhold funding of other disaster protection infrastructure grants that he himself had created and approved back in his first term.

And again, I keep having to ask, why? Really can't stress enough, weather is not political. A wildfire would easily burn Gavin Newsom as badly as any of the right-wing sociopaths he has as a guest on his podcast. Why is the GOP so routinely against disaster aid? It doesn't seem to be helping them or anyone. They just keep shooting themselves in the foot with this.

When it comes to weather disasters, there's this weird lack of foresight. It's like a college kid getting wasted the night before a big test. Trump won't shut up about slapping his ween on FEMA. He wants to kill the agency. Right up until he actually needs it. President Trump signed a federal disaster declaration at the request of Governor Greg Abbott. That allows FEMA to deploy its resources to the area.

But this comes not long after the president said he wants to shut the agency down. Yeah, dummy, you need that woke FEMA. We are entering the Atlantic hurricane season, and Trump seems to be backtracking now a bit, perhaps realizing we actually need FEMA but way too late. FEMA head David Richardson admitted that he had no preparation plan for Atlantic hurricanes, probably because he was too busy shoving his own employees into lockers. Once again though, to be fair and balanced, TMCR to David Richardson. He probably didn't have a preparation plan because he's also admitted that he didn't know that the

United States had a hurricane season. Hey, remember how Trump's head of Social Security admitted to his staff that he had to Google what his new job even was? Remember when first term Trump's Secretary of Energy Rick Perry didn't know what the Department of Energy did? My god, can we please get a palate cleanser specifically about Rick Perry? Rick Perry, watch him. He's a comer. Each viewing more beautiful than the last. Thank you. Anyway, earlier this year, after a series of tornadoes ripped across the central parts of

the country, Trump ignored their requests for aid, including from his former press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders. This added to an ever-growing backlog of disaster aid declaration requests from different states, which as of May was at 19. Can't stress enough, this hurts Trump voters far more. Not that it would matter, but you'd think it would matter more to Trump.

There are two reasons for this, and one is more insidious than the other. Reason one is that they're stupid and bad at their jobs. More likely, however, is that because they wanted to get rid of FEMA, they needed people to think that FEMA is bad. And the only way to do that is for FEMA to actually do a bad job. Here's Kristi Noem right after those Texas floods lamenting FEMA's response. We can end up putting this agency in the best place

and position possible to be reformed and remade into a vision of an agency that respects people, responds, and doesn't get in their way. Hey, Kristi, you're in charge of FEMA, dude. Why are you acting like FEMA is this other thing? Well, the answer is the second part of this clip. Federal emergency management should be state and locally led rather than how it has operated

for decades. You know that dirtbag roommate that won't do their chores and when you finally get them to wash the dishes, they do it poorly in the hopes that you'll stop asking them or pardon my misandry, but like when a woman asks a man to do any chore, that's what this is. For them to claim that FEMA is bad and slow,

they had to make it that way at the cost of, you know, human lives. And it seems like they're slowly realizing how disastrous that was. And now Kristi Noem is saying that Trump merely wants to remake FEMA, which was actually what Trump originally had planned before all the weaning. Back in January, Trump issued an executive order

that claimed he wanted to drastically improve FEMA, which he thought was doing a bad job. Quote, despite obligating nearly $30 billion in disaster aid each of the past three years, FEMA has managed to leave vulnerable Americans without the resources or support they need when they need it most. Oh, okay, so he doesn't think they'd do a good enough job.

That's fair. Of course, this order also goes on to accuse FEMA of, quote, diverting limited staff and resources to support missions beyond its scope and authority, spending well over a billion dollars to welcome illegal aliens. Aha! Of course it did. There's absolutely no evidence of this, but this was a lie that he and Elon Musk pushed back before the election. FEMA is helping aliens. It is the shadow government from the X-Files after all. But woke!

But sure, okay. So he first wanted to remake FEMA, but then progressed to wanting to eliminate FEMA completely. And now after these floods, they've reversed course back to remaking FEMA, you know, until hurricane season ends, and they forget that we need FEMA again and say they want to kill it. Again, it's weaponized

incompetence and a college kid refusing to learn from mistakes. The GOP has to constantly remember why we need FEMA. They'll talk a big game about big government budding into our business, and then beg big government for help the moment a storm hits in their state. What is it about FEMA and weather disasters that have completely short-circuited them? Why are they hostile toward the concept of FEMA? Not the idea that FEMA is doing a bad job, but the existence of FEMA, the thing they desperately need.

Well, let's take a break, and then let's answer that very question. Weather. Hey, you, look at me. Come on, look at me. Are you locked in? Because Summer of Cinema is here. Not the Summer of Cinema.

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I'm building a scream machine, which I guess might be valuable in some markets. So we asked a question before the break. We asked with our burly voices why the GOP seems to dislike the entire concept of FEMA. What is it about natural disasters that mystifies them? Why is their track record so bad when it comes to the simple matter of preparing and aiding with hurricanes? Well, let's step back and look at what a natural

disaster is. Just real basic, a natural disaster, as we keep saying, has no political goals. You can't change what it is. You can't stop it or pay it to go away or bomb it, despite what some presidents might suggest. It's a factual event based on science. That said, you could reduce their severity through long-term efforts toward green energy. You could put money toward preparing communities

for the increasing effects of climate change. And in order to fix the outcome of a natural disaster, you have to just pay to fix things. You just have to fix the homes and the businesses and the roads. It requires compassion and money and efforts toward prevention. And to do that, you have to back science and scientists. You have to acknowledge that those scientists are warning that natural disasters are happening more frequently now and what they believe to be the cause of that. Oh.

Oh. I see why they're having trouble with it, and why Trump specifically has trouble with it. He's the guy who fired people on TV. He's not built for disaster relief. He can't simply call the hurricane a rapist or blame the hurricane on the Wokes. I mean, they're gonna. But they shouldn't. That's why he's at his most awkward and out of place in videos like this.

Dude's not built for comforting grieving families. He's more of a ribbon-cutting guy, you know? He doesn't like anything he can't spin, and he can't really spin disasters. Many of them already spin on their own. Remember when he used a Sharpie to doctor Hurricane Dorian's path to make it look like it would hit Alabama? Remember COVID? How'd that go for him? COVID was the worst thing for a lot of us, but it was the worst thing for Trump's political career. I mean, it wasn't, ultimately. But you can see why a guy like this would hate dealing with COVID. Why he didn't even want to look at COVID death tolls because it made him look bad. The pandemic was just about helping people

and making sure everyone is safe. Yawn. You know what he would have loved? That post 9-11 hysteria. Oh man, imagine the zingers he'd throw at the French, all the fingers he'd get to point, the racism he would do so good at all the racism. But natural disasters, all the grieving, the rebuilding,

he can barely build a casino. But luckily for him, he's got an entire party willing to go along with him through whatever fucked up journey he wants. So we got him not even wanting to acknowledge it was happening so people didn't panic, or in this case, acknowledge it was happening. We got the China conspiracy theories during COVID,

someone to blame, the division he caused with all the anti-mask stuff, a way for him to blame the Libs for the lockdown orders, despite him being the president during it. How wild is that? How wild is it that the president managed to convince his base that the Democrats were to blame for the pandemic he was the president during?

We talk a lot about how the Democrats seem to enjoy being the opposition or minority party. They get to be the resistance without actually doing anything, you know? But when it comes to natural disasters, it's the GOP that actually craves that. Because when he's not in charge, Trump loves to talk about natural disasters. After Hurricane Helene killed 230 people across multiple states in 2024, Trump jumped on the opportunity to not only complain about Biden,

but to spread those conspiracy theories about FEMA using immigrants to vote for the Democrats or whatever. Now, we can't say the reason for certain, but after this, 53% of the Hurricane Helene victims in North Carolina that were eligible for housing assistance through FEMA refused to apply. Trump then promised that if he was elected, he would help North Carolina rebuild through

tariffs somehow. You can sort of see where this is going. So Trump won the election, and then before leaving office, Biden directed FEMA to match 100% of the dollars North Carolina had spent for recovery and aid. This is in contrast to the usual 75-25% spread between FEMA funds and state funds. But when North Carolina wanted an extension on those matching funds, now President Trump denied them. FEMA funds were instead drawn down to 90%,

which means North Carolina taxpayers would have to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for the remaining costs. Also, earlier in March, Trump's FEMA pulled out of all of the disaster recovery areas in North Carolina. And that's that, because it's just so much easier to sit on the sidelines complaining about your opponent than to actually do something, right?

It's like how they love talking about the deep state and where's the Epstein files and all that, right until they're in charge. Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy's been talked about for years. You're asking, we have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things, and are people still talking about this guy? Right, Pstian? You're asking we have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things.

And are people still talking about this guy? Right? Pstian? Is that a word? Why are we talking about this Epstein when Texas needs help that we're not going to give them? Sorry, Jeffrey Epstein has very little to do with hurricanes, I think, but it's all part of the same pattern.

It's all part of why the GOP can't really deal with natural disasters. They don't really fit into their magical little world. They don't believe the federal government should help anyone. One of their big goals is to lower taxes for the wealthy and then offset that lost revenue with spending cuts. But you can't really cut the budget for FEMA. I mean, I guess you can, but you shouldn't. And when you try to, you'll regret it. We just need it. I don't know, when you think about it, if a political ideology falls apart,

the moment there's a hurricane, maybe it's bad, you know? That's like if a car exploded every time it hit a speed bump. This car probably. If you're just listening to the podcast version of this, you know exactly what vehicle we just put on the screen. It's pretty striking, right? Weather, as I keep saying, isn't political. It's just science.

It's reality. It's physical reality. It's probably the most physical and immediate proof of science for a lot of people. A scientist goes on TV and says, "'There's a tornado coming. And then it happens. And when your political party is so against science, well, that must irk them. Must be tough, you know? If you have to deny climate change because your goal

is to allow fossil fuel companies to keep making money, then how do you explain the fact that these natural disasters are increasing? I'm sure some people will try to blame DEI, but for most, it's just something everyone can see now. And while some sweet summer children really hoped that would mean accepting climate change, well, those people really underestimated the GOP. Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has announced that she is introducing a new bill

based on a growing conspiracy theory prohibiting weather modification. Holy fucking balls, they're doing chemtrail shit now, guys. Remember when that was only something weird drifters would believe in? And now it's just gonna be part of the GOP platform. Climate change is real and it's caused by woke machines. Expect Trump to mention this within the year.

Because what else can they do? Admit they were wrong? Accept the basic reality of science? No. They're gonna just descend further into a fantasy like spoilers the ending of Shutter Island. People are starting to literally attack weather radars as if they are responsible for the weather. That's caveman shit.

And our only hope is that they either fall from power, hopefully forever, or things get so bad that they finally have to stop their little doge and climate denial larping and actually just deal with the reality. Until then, all we can really do is prepare amongst ourselves. After Hurricane Helene, North Carolinians stepped up and mutual aid groups mobilized quickly to provide generators, food, baby care products, and menstrual supplies to their

residents. If FEMA goes away, we're going to need a lot more of that. Ironically, more help on the local level. We're going to need people to volunteer and donate to places like the Mutual Aid Disaster Reliefs website. Just make sure that if you donate to a nonprofit, that you can confirm that your donation goes directly to the mutual aid groups on the ground. And not to be one of the many woke Nick Offerman's non-woke prepper characters about all of this,

but making some personal preparations can be helpful for you, your family, and your neighbors. Now that your local weather reporter has less accurate information and you won't get federal assistance afterward, it'd be good to be extra ready just in case. Stuff like taking first aid and CPR classes to help your family and neighbors, regularly doing things to weatherproof your home and do chores in your yard to better protect it from storm damage, get an emergency kit with water, food, prescription meds, medical supplies, pet food, baby stuff, and a whole checklist of other items to have in case the worst happens.

Not doom prep, but basic disaster prep. It's scary, I know, which is probably why the GOP would rather blame wokeness and weather machines and other things that feel more tangible to them. It's always funny how naive conspiracy theorists are in this way. They act like they know some hard truth when they're actually doing the opposite. Like, listen, I wish it was a weather machine, but they don't exist, at least not in the way these people are pretending.

But they can and will exist as long as I can order more blood off of Etsy. The weather is big and scary and feels out of our control. All we can do is try to manage it. So it would be cool if we had an agency to do that. Now, if you would excuse me, there's a certain scream machine I need to move to the dumpster.

Coming my dear! I can't find the screen machine. But I still hear the screen? Like, it's not direction. It's not, like, oh, it's not from over there. It's from everywhere. Did I make a really cool, scary machine? I think I made a really cool, scary machine. I'm gonna, like a tornado, but, screen machines. No! Ah! Shut up!

Thanks for watching, everybody. Make sure to like and subscribe, leave a comment if you want to, and if you don't, that's okay too. We've got a podcast called Even More News. You can check it out on this channel twice a week or in the podcast store twice a week. You can listen to this show, Some More News, as a podcast. If you don't want to, look at me. If you didn't want to see that Cybertruck joke, you can just listen to it and you can

know that's a Cybertruck joke, you can just listen to it and you can know that's a Cybertruck joke. So also patreon.com slash some more news and also a merch store with merchy kind of things on merchandise for you to merch it up. Merch it up. I don't know how to end this, so I won't. But end it. Discover the magic of Bet MGM Casino But... end it. to feel like you're actually at the casino. The excitement doesn't stop there. With over 3,000 games to choose from,

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