Trump eyes massive cut that would doom key campaign promise: NY Times

The Trump administration is reportedly planning to take a massive ax to the Office of Community Planning and Development — the primary office that helps parts of the country recover after they've been hit by particularly severe natural disasters.

According to the New York Times, Trump officials are planning to cut the office's staff by 84 percent, which would effectively eliminate it completely despite its vital importance to communities afflicted by natural disasters.

As the Times noted, a cut this massive could make it impossible for Trump to fulfill his campaign promise to the people of North Carolina to help them quickly recover from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene last year.

The Office of Community Planning and Development is part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and it is typically deployed to help rebuild during disasters that exceed the scope of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's budget.

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"Some disasters are so big that they exceed FEMA’s funding, or the damage doesn’t fit neatly within FEMA’s programs," writes the Times. "When that happens, Congress can choose to provide additional help, through a program at HUD called the Community Development Block Grant — Disaster Recovery."

In more specific terms, the Times reports that the money spent through this agency "is largely used to rebuild homes that were either uninsured or underinsured, which the Federal Emergency Management Agency does not pay for" and "also goes toward rebuilding infrastructure that’s not covered by FEMA, like the private roads and bridges that were significantly damaged by Helene in North Carolina."