Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has not budged in her belief that the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be eliminated, Amanda Marcotte wrote for Salon — and the reason has its roots in a white nationalist-adjacent conspiracy theory that has been bubbling below the surface in American politics for years.
The GOP has, to some extent, backed off openly talking about eliminating FEMA in the wake of the devastating floods in Texas that killed more than 100 people — particularly amid reports that Trump administration policy changes may have delayed the federal response to the disaster.
But it hasn't eliminated its resolve to tackle FEMA, she wrote.
"Noem isn’t giving up the dream of ending the federal agency," Marcotte wrote. "Sending innocent people to wither away in foreign gulags has been Noem’s top priority at DHS, but she seems to be nearly as excited about cutting off aid to Americans who are suffering from natural disasters.
"In February, she declared her intent to 'get rid of FEMA the way it exists today.' In March, Politico reported that Noem plans to subject FEMA to the 'chopping block.' Those plans haven’t changed. This week, she reiterated that FEMA 'fundamentally needs to go away as it exists' and called for it to be 'eliminated as it exists today.'"
The qualifier "as it exists" gives Noem and her fellow Republicans an out to say they really just want to reform the agency, not eliminate it outright — but make no mistake, Marcotte warned, it still comes from the same place.
"The history of conspiracy theories about FEMA goes back to the agency’s founding under President Jimmy Carter in 1979," wrote Marcotte. From the outset, extremist groups "started circulating rumors that FEMA’s disaster relief mission was a cover story for the true goal: Rounding up white Christians into concentration camps, so the 'globalists' (read: Jews, people of color, feminists, queer people) could impose the 'New World Order.'"
The heart of the theory, she explained, is that disaster relief stations set up by the agency are actually "FEMA camps" to imprison white Christians — often backed up by falsely claiming that various military training exercises around the country are being staged by FEMA. "The racist subtext is never hard to spot. Militia groups that promote 'FEMA camps' conspiracies will often spin yarns about how 'urban gangs' will be recruited to round up 'patriots' — their code word for white conservative Christians — into camps."
These theories were turbocharged during the Obama years, and formed a big part of the recruitment pitch for the "Oath Keepers" who went on to storm the Capitol after the 2020 election.
Noem understands this, Marcotte argued — and her appeals to this crowd as she bashes FEMA reveals a core part of the MAGA worldview.
"The Trumpist model of federal government is that it’s there to streamline corruption for wealthy leaders and inflict pain on people MAGA doesn’t like, especially people of color. They don’t appear to think it’s the government’s job to help ordinary people," wrote Marcotte.
"The point of FEMA is that the vast majority of Americans don’t have the independent wealth that allows them to rebuild after a disaster with ease. But in the eyes of Trump and Noem, those who are not wealthy — like many of the victims in Texas — should be on their own if they can’t pay their way out of trouble."
