Here’s What Trump Didn’t Say About Disasters in His State of the Union

WASHINGTON, DC – In his State of the Union address, Trump made sure to mention some of the devastating disasters that have occurred in his second term, including the most recent snowstorms that have hit the South and the East Coast and the deadly 2025 Central Texas floods. But he failed to address the elephant in the room — how his administration’s inept management of FEMA and our nation’s disaster recovery is making extreme weather more dangerous. As communities across the country are increasingly impacted by climate disasters, Trump and Kristi Noem have held up disaster relief dollars, slowing recovery and making it more expensive, all while higher rebuilding and home insurance costs are being pushed onto local communities. So here’s the truth:

FACT: Trump’s tariffs increased the costs of materials, like lumber and steel, necessary for disaster recovery and rebuilding. 

FACT: In the face of rising climate disasters, Trump claimed FEMA was a “mostly failed situation” and said he considered “getting rid of FEMA.” 

FACT: Trump has cut key FEMA staff, delaying the distribution of critical disaster funding. By June of last year, FEMA had lost more than 2,400 employees under Trump. In early 2026, the DHS terminated hundreds of staffers from FEMA’s Cadre of On-Call Response and Recovery (CORE) Teams, and planned to terminate thousands. 

FACT: The Government Accountability Office warned that FEMA’s staffing crisis, caused by Trump’s cuts, exacerbated existing challenges and severely undermined national disaster readiness.

FACT: Last year alone, FEMA denied and delayed disaster aid relief requests for 18 states, including Kentucky, Washington, Georgia, Arkansas, North Carolina, Michigan, Wisconsin, Colorado, Alaska and Maryland. 

FACT: Trump’s first-year federal funding cuts paused nearly $10 billion in FEMA disaster aid for nonprofits working to rebuild and rehouse Americans after climate disasters. 

FACT: As of early February 2026, pending FEMA disaster applications were sitting longer on average than at any other point in the previous 37 years.

FACT: The National Weather Service lost nearly 600 employees due to cuts from the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s DOGE.

FACT: Because of the Trump administration’s massive layoffs, NWS eliminated or reduced vital weather balloon launches, which degraded forecasts during storms and put lives at risk.

FACT: Trump fired and planned to cut about 2,300 workers at NOAA, including hurricane hunters and researchers at the National Severe Storm Laboratory, in addition to terminating some of the agency’s building leases.

FACT: Trump stopped approving new allocations from FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation and Grant Program, becoming the first president in at least three decades to deny governors’ requests for funding that’s meant to protect people and property.

FACT: Trump’s DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is requiring her personal approval on all FEMA expenses exceeding $100,000 — which delayed life-saving search and rescue operations during the July 2025 Texas floods and created a $17 billion bottleneck at FEMA that deprived states of critical funding for disaster mitigation and response as of January 2026. 

FACT: Under Kristi Noem’s failed leadership, FEMA began requiring disaster victims to have email addresses, which hindered aid distribution and halted hundreds of millions in emergency management grants, requiring states to prove their population counts.