FEMA in DOGE crosshairs

FEMA in DOGE crosshairs
By Terry A. Hurlbut
DOGE made a move no one saw coming last Friday (February 7). It is now attacking the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). But perhaps people should have seen this coming, because Elon Musk had his own chance to outflank and outshine FEMA. He took that chance, as everyone will remember, in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene blew through. Now he’s taken his chance to investigate the rumors that FEMA spent money on illegal aliens instead of disaster relief. And he found out that something is off with the agency’s spending – enough to put it on hold.
DOGE meets FEMA
The Washington Post reported on Friday that DOGE now has access to FEMA’s grant programs. These are the programs that actually pay disaster victims. The Post, as quoted by The Gateway Pundit, produced the most over-the-top prose outside of a B movie script:
The presence of DOGE, or Department of Government Efficiency, at FEMA, has caused uncertainty and confusion, raising fears that Trump could soon follow through on his pledge to dismantle the agency, as his administration is doing with the U.S. Agency for International Development.
According to the officials, a small team that does not have security clearance has access to FEMA’s network, which contains the private and sensitive information of tens of thousands of disaster victims. For example, FEMA officials said that on Feb. 5, Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old former college student who goes by the moniker “Big Balls” online and now works for Musk, was given a FEMA badge. The officials, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of fears of professional retaliation.
Wow. That excerpt has every B-movie trope in the book. It mentions Ed Coristine, who is 19 years old and did use an off-color online alias. Elon Musk, for his own reasons, has hired these fresh-out-of-high-school (or college) information technicians because they’re brash, competent – and utterly ruthless. Whether Mr. Coristine really is involved in the FEMA investigation is not clear; the Post’s prose is comically self-satirical. But another thing they got right is that FEMA does face disbanding. President Donald Trump promised something like that to western North Carolina storm survivors. All those people have stories to tell about FEMA, and they are not flattering.
Worse, after the election, reports surfaced that agency teams bypassed homes flying Trump flags in their yards. The agency’s Washington office threw a field supervisor under the bus – whereupon she ratted out the higher-ups.
Yesterday afternoon (February 8), Nick Sortor posted his own take on the matter:
#BREAKING: Elon Musk and DOGE have now gained access to FEMA's systems. We MUST find out where the money meant for the people of Maui and Western North Carolina *actually* went, Elon Musk. Because most of it sure as h**l didn't make it to the hands of victims.
https://x.com/nicksortor/status/1888284580580319473
Improper payments?
Three hours later came word that DOGE has ordered a pause on many FEMA payments.
Potentially illegal payments will now be paused for review.
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1888323537372418297
By that, Musk means improper payments, to those who should never have gotten the money. Gateway Pundit reporter Cullen Linebarger shared a few ideas in his two reports.
For example, will DOGE discover that FEMA paid off officials who discriminated against Trump supporters during the 2024 election cycle?
They might also discover something else: that those payments when to immigration-related non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Team Trump already had reason to suspect that when FEMA pleaded that they had run out of money. Evidence emerged while Hurricane Helene was doing her damage in North Carolina, southwestern Virginia, East and Middle Tennessee, and Kentucky. Then-White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tried to deny it – but her own words told against her. In 2022, after Gov. Greg Abbott (R-Texas) sent busloads of illegal aliens out of his State to other States, Karine Jean-Pierre specifically said:
FEMA Regional Administrators have been meeting with city officials on site to coordinate available federal support from FEMA and other federal agencies.
Now, of course, the Second Trump Administration is deporting illegal aliens as fast as it can. But the suspicion remains that FEMA helped resettle illegal immigrants in various American cities. The larger question is whether FEMA paid to fly these immigrants into the country under the Refugee Admission Program. Perhaps a detailed examination of the agency’s books will make everything clear – or start to.
Help is on the way
Happily, for all those storm survivors in western North Carolina, help is on the way. Jim Hoft (TGP) reported this morning that nearly 80 percent of open storm-relief cases are now resolved. New Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said this in an interview on Fox News:
President Trump came in and visited this community and in less than 20 days, secured over $54 million for families in need and registered 2,600 families that needed assistance and hadn’t gotten that type of help to get signed up for the programs that we have.
In the past five days, we’ve decreased the number of open cases by almost 80%.
President Trump is ensuring that communities aren’t forgotten, and he launched the first major initiative to connect farmers with recovery assistance, as well. Today I had the chance to spend some time with Mark, who’s a microfarmer in this area, and to talk about some of the FEMA programs that he’s been able to utilize that have been incredibly helpful.
https://x.com/nicksortor/status/1888310073312837667
This obviously begs the question of why FEMA, under then-Secretary Mayorkas, couldn’t get relief to those people in four months. Reaction included equal parts:
• Celebration that the storm survivors were at last getting the relief they’ve been waiting for,
• Suspicion that the Biden administration deliberately withheld aid from the region out of partisan spite, and
• An observation that “the competent adults are in charge.”
But the next question is how much of FEMA’s budget do those “helpful” programs represent, and whether Secretary Noem could have her Department subsume some of those programs, the same as Secretary of State Rubio is doing with USAID. Furthermore, DOGE, or someone, needs to investigate one other allegation: that this agency has internment camps on domestic military posts. If such camps exist, DOGE can best find out about them by a complete audit of the agency.
In any case, the country now knows how good a choice it made by reelecting President Donald J. Trump.
Link to:
The article:
https://cnav.news/2025/02/09/news/fema-doge-crosshairs/

Posts about access to FEMA systems:
https://x.com/nicksortor/status/1888284580580319473
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1888323537372418297

Help is on the way:
https://x.com/nicksortor/status/1888310073312837667

Declarations of Truth:
https://x.com/DecTruth

Declarations of Truth Locals Community:
https://declarationsoftruth.locals.com/

Conservative News and Views:
https://cnav.news/

Clixnet Media
https://clixnet.com/