FEMA is Being Eliminated—Kristi Noem Confirms During Trump Cabinet Meeting [WATCH]

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed during a cabinet meeting at the White House that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will be eliminated under the direction of the Trump administration.

Noem’s remarks came as part of a broader update on deportation increases and border security operations led by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Speaking at the meeting, Noem stated that deportations have surged by 50 percent in recent weeks.

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She attributed the rise to DHS efforts to remove not only high-level offenders but also others who have entered the country illegally and committed crimes in local communities.

“We are, in the month of March — the last couple of weeks, increased our deportations by 50 percent,” Noem said.

“So, we’re now not even just getting the worst of the worst out, we’re making sure that there’s consequences for being here and committing crimes in our communities. And, the numbers are continuing to escalate and to go up.”

Noem also announced that she will be traveling to El Salvador this week to visit a prison housing TdA members previously deported by the U.S. government.

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She said the trip would include meetings with the president of El Salvador, as well as officials in Colombia and Mexico.

“This week I’m headed down to El Salvador. I’ll be in the prison where we sent TdA members, I’ll be meeting with the president and also Columbia and Mexico and talking about building these relations so that we can continue to get people out of this country that don’t belong here and take them home,” she said.

In addition to deportation operations, Noem highlighted the increased role of the U.S. Coast Guard in combating the fentanyl crisis and enhancing border security.

According to Noem, the Coast Guard has been repositioned strategically to target drug trafficking routes and boost efforts along the southern border.

“The Coast Guard has done phenomenal work — I don’t know if you all have reported on it, but we have broken historic records in the amount of drug interdictions that they have brought in,” Noem added.

“We’ve repositioned the fleet to go after the fentanyl crisis and go after the southern border and securing it, and they’ve done amazing work as far as that.”

During the cabinet meeting, Noem also confirmed that the Trump administration will proceed with eliminating FEMA.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem Reveals Plans to Eliminate FEMA During a Trump administration cabinet meeting at the White House today.

Noem also spoke about how DHS had increased deportations by 50 percent, and praised the United States Coast Guard for doing “phenomenal work” and… pic.twitter.com/gE3FoChAV3

— Whiplash347 (@Whiplash437) March 25, 2025

This announcement followed her previous remarks during a February CNN interview, where she was asked how she would respond if President Donald Trump inquired about dismantling the agency.

“I would say, yes, get rid of FEMA the way it exists today,” Noem told CNN.

“We still need the resources and the funds and the finances to go to people that have these types of disasters, like Hurricane Helene and the fires in California, but you need to let the local officials make the decisions on how that is deployed, so it can be deployed much quicker. And we don’t need this bureaucracy that’s picking and choosing winners.”

#BREAKING: President Trump’s DHS Secretary, Kristi Noem, has called for the elimination of FEMA after Elon Musk’s post on X that:

“FEMA is broken…”

“Get rid of FEMA the way it exists today. We don’t need this bureaucracy picking and choosing winners.” pic.twitter.com/YABfBaxhDh

— Matt Van Swol (@matt_vanswol) February 9, 2025

President Trump has also criticized FEMA in recent months. In a January interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Trump said the agency had failed to deliver results over the past four years and caused unnecessary delays in emergency response.

Trump stated, “FEMA has not done their job for the last four years.”

He added that he would “rather see the states take care of their own problems.”

The administration has not released a specific timeline for the dismantling of FEMA, but the decision marks a shift toward decentralizing disaster response and returning more control to state and local governments.

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