The claim: Project 2025 'wants to end FEMA'
A Sept. 30 Threads post ( direct link , archive link ) claims a federal agency that responds to disasters may be eliminated if former President Donald Trump is reelected.
“Somebody should tell Republicans in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia that trump’s (sic) project 2025 wants to end FEMA,” reads the post.
It was reposted more than 700 times in two weeks. Another version of the claim spread on Threads.
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Our rating: False
Project 2025 doesn’t include a plan to close the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but it does call for reform. It recommends dismantling the department FEMA falls under and incorporating its existing agencies into other federal departments. The plan says FEMA is needed to respond to widespread disasters.
Playbook says FEMA needed in 'truly catastrophic disasters'
The claim came days after Hurricane Helene hit the southeastern U.S. , killing more than 200 people and causing destruction that could cost upward of $30 billion . FEMA has been involved with search-and-rescue efforts and has provided aid, including meals and water , to communities affected by the storm.
But the claim about Trump and his supposed plan for FEMA is baseless.
First, Project 2025 isn’t a plan from Trump, as USA TODAY previously reported . It’s a 900-page political playbook crafted by the Heritage Foundation and more than 100 other conservative groups. It is filled with policy recommendations for the next Republican president.
The playbook has an entire chapter devoted to proposals for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA . The opening paragraph says its primary recommendation is to dismantle the department "along its mission lines" and move some of its existing agencies to other federal departments or, in the case of the Transportation Security Administration, privatize them.
The plan suggests FEMA be housed under the Department of the Interior or, if combined with (the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency), under the Department of Transportation.
The chapter's subsection on FEMA does call for significant reform of the agency, but it also recognizes the role it plays in responding to disasters.
It begins by saying the agency is "overtasked" and "overcompensates for the lack of state and local preparedness and response and is regularly in deep debt.” It goes on to condemn what it deems as states' overreliance on federal disaster aid, which it says has allowed "FEMA's resources to be stretched perilously thin."
“This combination has left FEMA unprepared in both readiness and funding for the truly catastrophic disasters in which its services are most needed," it says. "Reform of FEMA requires a greater emphasis on federalism and state and local preparedness, leaving FEMA to focus on large, widespread disasters."
The section also calls to end Department of Homeland Security grants, which FEMA manages , and says that only the FEMA administrator should have to be confirmed by the Senate, as opposed to the four FEMA positions that currently require Senate confirmation.
At no point, however, does the plan call for eliminating FEMA.
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Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said claims Trump would end FEMA were “fake news” in an email to FactCheck.org, the outlet reported .
Trump has, however, criticized the federal response to hurricanes Helene and Milton, and spread false claims that FEMA is short on disaster relief funding because it has diverted money to migrants in the U.S. illegally.
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell countered by saying the agency is fully equipped to meet the needs of hurricane survivors and called Trump’s rhetoric “frankly ridiculous and just plain false,” USA TODAY reported .
USA TODAY has debunked an array of claims about Project 2025, including false assertions that it calls to close the National Hurricane Center , that it proposes a military draft for all public school seniors and that it says the “only valid family” includes a working father and stay-at-home mother.
USA TODAY reached out to Leavitt, the Heritage Foundation and several users who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Snopes also debunked the claim.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Project 2025 calls to reform, not close, FEMA | Fact check
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