U.S. President Donald Trump visited disaster-hit western North Carolina on Friday and was traveling later to Los Angeles, promising help while stoking partisan tensions with Democratic rivals over recovery efforts.

Donald Trump, who has been a vocal critic of the Biden administration’s response to Hurricane Helene, which struck North Carolina in September 2024, said that he would like to see states assume more responsibility in the aftermath of natural disasters, rather than the federal government.

As wildfires raged across Los Angeles, killing at least 24 people and destroying thousands of structures, some people sought to contrast emergency response to the fires to disaster response that followed deadly hurricanes that battered the southeastern U.