One Year Since The LA Fires, Trump Has Made Us Less Prepared for Future Disasters

Washington, DC – It’s been one year since the expensive and deadly Los Angeles fires, and Donald Trump has continued to play politics with disaster aid, gutted our response systems, and made us less prepared for future disasters. In his first year in office, Trump has slashed funding for states to prepare for disasters and put critical wildfire prevention efforts at risk – leaving communities unprepared and vulnerable. This week, the Washington Post reported that Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has plans to cut thousands of critical disaster response and recovery staff from FEMA, which would further weaken our disaster preparedness.  

Climate Power Communications Director Alex Glass issued the following statement: “When disasters strike, communities need help quickly and want to know their elected officials have their backs. But when the Eaton and Palisades fires devastated Los Angeles last year, Trump played political games with critical aid. Trump has continued to block and delay disaster relief across the country, forcing people to bear the expensive cost of recovery on their own. Trump’s cuts to federal disaster aid have pushed the cost onto already overburdened communities. Now, Trump is more focused on spending taxpayer dollars in pursuit of foreign oil, than on helping Americans rebuild their homes, businesses, and neighborhoods.” 

Trump has politicized disaster aid and made us less prepared for future major disasters: 

• After Trump ended NOAA’s tracking of the most costly extreme weather events – those that cause over $1 billion in damage – an analysis by Climate Central found that the first half of 2025 was the costliest period ever recorded for extreme weather. 
• Major disaster declarations are taking longer under Trump than under previous presidents. 
• Trump played politics with disaster aid, freezing, denying, and delaying funding for 13 states and raising costs for local governments to deal with climate disasters. 
• Trump weakened our wildfire response by gutting the U.S. Forest Service, causing severe understaffing, which left wildland firefighters without critical support on the frontlines.
• Trump’s cuts to the U.S. Forest Service slowed wildfire prevention efforts and weakened our preparedness – leaving communities vulnerable. As of September 2025, wildfire prevention efforts had fallen significantly behind the 2024 levels and were trailing the ten-year average.
• Trump’s cuts have made weather forecasting more difficult, degrading forecasts in previous storms, and threatening life-saving weather alerts.
• Trump has gutted our federal disaster response and canceled funding for states to prepare for disasters – putting Americans at risk and pushing the financial burden of recovery onto states and local communities.
• The Government Accountability Office found that Trump’s cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency are putting the country at risk of being unprepared to respond to massive natural disasters.
• Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem drafted plans to cut thousands of FEMA staff who work on disaster response and recovery, which would further delay aid and harm communities’ ability to recover from disasters. These drastic cuts could impede the agency’s “ability to fulfill its legal obligation to help the nation respond to disasters.”