President Donald Trump on Friday announced that he would sign an executive order to reform or entirely eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) during a press conference in western North Carolina.

"I'll also be signing an Executive Order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA — or maybe getting rid of FEMA," he said. "I think when you have a problem like this, I think you want to... use your state to fix it and not waste time."

Trump has been critical of the federal response to Hurricane Helene, which devastated western North Carolina ahead of the election. He visited the region on Friday to check on the recovery efforts and had harsh words for the federal agency.

"I think we're gonna recommend that FEMA go away," he added.