US President Donald Trump on Friday (Jan 24) arrived in North Carolina to assess the extent of the damage caused by the recent hurricane. 

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This marks his first visit outside Washington after taking office as US President. Trump is accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump. 

Trump, during his visit, suggested that he would sign an "executive order" to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), "or maybe getting rid of them". 

Also read: FEMA official directed aid workers to avoid houses with Trump signs, suspended: Report

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“We’re going to recommend that FEMA go away," Trump added, suggesting that states take the lead role in responding and then get reimbursed a percentage of their costs from the federal government. 

'FEMA has not done the job'

As he arrived in North Carolina, Trump said that he would be assessing the role of FEMA moving forward, claiming the agency got in the way of disaster response.

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Also read: New Los Angeles wildfire forces thousands, including 500 inmates, to evacuate

"FEMA just hasn’t done the job. And we’re looking at the whole concept of FEMA. I like, frankly, the concept when North Carolina gets hit, the governor takes care of it. When Florida gets hit, the governor takes care of it, meaning the state takes care of it, to have a group of people come in from an area that don’t even know where they’re going in order to solve immediately a problem is something that never worked for me, but this is probably one of the best examples of it not working,” Trump told reporters. 

He added that the "aid will go through us", rather than going through FEMA. 

Trump, while talking to the reporters, said that he wanted to see two actions taken in California before he offered federal support for Los Angeles. 

Also read: Los Angeles faces 'extreme fire danger' amid high winds forecast, over 6mn people under critical threat

“I want to see two things in Los Angeles. Voter ID, so that the people have a chance to vote, and I want to see the water be released and come down into Los Angeles and throughout the state,” Trump told reporters in North Carolina. 

“Those are the two things. After that, I will be the greatest president that California has ever seen,” he added.

The US President further said that he wants to take care of the people of North Carolina. 

“We want to take care of the people of North Carolina. It’s so interesting. Everybody is talking about California, and that’s a mess. But I said, I’m not going to California until I stop in North Carolina. So here we are,” Trump said. 

Also read: Los Angeles faces 'extreme fire danger' amid high winds forecast, over 6mn people under critical threat

“We’re going to go visit the site and we’re going to work with probably three of the congressmen, Republican congressmen, who have been fantastic, whose areas have been affected," he added. 

Trump will be receiving a briefing on the recovery efforts in the affected region. 

Following his visit to North Carolina, Trump will then travel to California, where wildfires have ravaged the Los Angeles area. 

(With inputs from agencies)