President Trump announces ‘tremendous’ UK trade deal
President Donald Trump announced a trade deal with the U.K., the first trade agreement since he imposed sweeping tariffs in April.
Acting Federal Emergency Management Administrator Cameron Hamilton has been fired, according to media reports, a day after he opposed abolishing the agency, which President Donald Trump has suggested.
Pressed during a May 7 House committee hearing about eliminating FEMA, Hamilton said he didn’t support it.
“I do not believe it is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton’s comments were a notable break from the rhetoric of Trump and other administration officials, who during his second term have remained publicly supportive of his messaging.
“I think we’re going to recommend that FEMA go away,” Trump said while touring flood damage in North Carolina in January, before continuing to Los Angeles, which was devastated by wildfires, where he said, “I say you don’t need FEMA, you need a good state government.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees FEMA, reiterated Trump’s position in a May 6 congressional hearing.
“He believes that FEMA and its response in many, many circumstances has failed the American people, and that FEMA, as it exists today, should be eliminated,” Noem said
Hamilton, the FEMA administrator, noted that the agency’s future isn’t up to him. He said it’s a question for Trump and “this governing body” to decide “what is prudent for federal investment and what is not.”