Every proposal President Donald Trump makes is not necessarily wrong. Many Democrats and independents will be appalled by that observation, but it’s statistically impossible for any person to be wrong 100% of the time. Trump got it right when he called for abolishment of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Trump has called FEMA a “disaster” suggesting it might “go away.” According to an article posted by the Missouri Independent news website, Trump believes that “states would best take care of hurricanes, tornadoes and wildfires on their own, with the federal government reimbursing some of the costs.”

Trump is right but not for the reason motivating him.

California is a donor state. According to WiseVoter.com, being a donor is “the difference between federal receipts and the expenditure from the federal budget for each state.” In 2023, California contributed $263 billion more than we received. It’s a great deal for many other states, especially those whose residents enjoy dumping on the Golden State. It’s a poor arrangement for 40 million Californians.

News website Politico reports that Trump “demanded concessions from California Democrats on two pet issues unrelated to the devastating Los Angeles County wildfires — requiring voter ID at the polls and sending more water from Northern California” before he’d release disaster aid.

Imagine a massive wildfire or a 1906-scale earthquake devastating politically “deep blue” Marin and Sonoma counties. What might Trump, “co-president” Elon Musk and his merry band of post-teenage nerds dictate to the North Bay in return for immediate disaster help? At the top of the list, there would likely be a demand to gut a swath of local voter-enacted environmental practices.

While Trump governs as if he only represents Republicans, eventually Democrats will learn the new rules and only respond to the urgent needs of blue states. Both approaches would be morally wrong and an abandonment of the tradition of interstate reciprocity. Since that partisan practice has already begun, we shouldn’t be surprised if the future of disaster relief is based on quid-pro-quo decisions regardless of party.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene when Joe Biden was president, candidate Trump said that Biden was diverting FEMA money to undocumented immigrants and limiting aid to $750 per person in Republican-majority areas. While there’s no proof of his assertion, it should motivate those who believe his claim to support returning FEMA’s budget back to the states on a per capita basis.

What every American needs in the event of the inevitable natural or manmade calamity is certainty that help is coming.

It is true that wealthier states (including California, Florida, Texas and New York) will, if FEMA is dissolved, have ample disaster funds. Others with a less vibrant private sector economy (such as Mississippi, West Virginia, North Dakota or Alaska) will have trouble managing on their own.

The old version of the Republican Party promoted the virtues of local control. Contrast that to many national Democrats who favored edicts from Washington. Whether that belief in local control still holds at a time when the GOP controls all three branches of national government is in doubt. That doesn’t negate the belief that a local control-first policy has merit.

Each party will need to sacrifice elements of control that they relish. Trump and his minions will not be able to dictate how individual states and private enterprise promote diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives or tell California how to disburse its scarce water. Likewise, progressive Democrats will need to forgo forcing politically correct initiatives on “red” states or land management on rural bastions.

A robust form of federalism may be the best (or perhaps the only) route forward if we are to remain a nation of 50 united states. Directing FEMA’s role back to individual states is just one approach toward promoting federalism on steroids.

Columnist Dick Spotswood of Mill Valley writes on local issues Sundays and Wednesdays. Email him at spotswood@comcast.net.