President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday directing the federal government to take over home rebuilding efforts in Los Angeles County, aiming to “cut through bureaucratic red tape and speed up reconstruction” more than a year after the devastating wildfires in Southern California.

On Tuesday, the White House released a fact sheet explaining that the order requires the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Small Business Administration (SBA) to “preempt” state and local permitting requirements. California Democrats have been accused of slowing down the rebuilding process by requiring people who lost their homes to abide by burdensome standards.

“I want to see if we can take over the city and state and just give the people their permits they want to build,” Trump told The New York Post.

The Palisades and Eaton fires, which erupted last January, destroyed around 13,000 homes and other residential properties in Los Angeles County. In the past year, fewer than a dozen homes in those areas have been rebuilt, NBC News reported earlier this month. Delayed insurance payouts are also slowing some rebuilding efforts, and many residents are finding that their payouts won’t be enough to cover construction costs. California building permits and regulations only add to the high costs.

“Despite billions of dollars in Federal recovery awards and the fastest Federal debris removal in American history, only about 2,500 of the tens of thousands of homes and businesses destroyed have received permits to rebuild. Now a year after the fires, less than 10 homes have been rebuilt,” Trump’s order states. “Overly burdensome, confusing, and inconsistent permitting requirements, duplicative permitting reviews, procedural bottlenecks, and administrative delays have effectively stalled recovery efforts.”

The Environmental Protection Agency moved quickly last year to clear debris after the fires, an effort Trump said impressed him. He praised EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s leadership and told The Post that he plans to put Zeldin in charge of the new push to cut California’s rebuilding red tape. Pacific Palisades resident Nina Madok, whose home was destroyed, told The Post that she was impressed by the federal government’s “ability to expedite everything” after the fires.

“Having the federal government, especially with somebody like Donald Trump who is Mr. Let’s-Get-It-Done — who moves at the speed of light — makes a huge difference,” Madok added.

Shortly after the fires, Trump traveled to Los Angeles County to survey the damage alongside California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom in what was the first trip of Trump’s second term. During a press conference alongside L.A. Mayor Karen Bass last year, Trump urged California leaders to allow residents to immediately return to their properties and begin cleanup and rebuilding.

“You shouldn’t have any [permits] at this point. You should just let them build,” Trump said.

Bass replied, saying, “We are going to do everything we can, slashing regulations, expediting everything so that people can begin the process right away.”

More than a year later, however, California residents are still frustrated with the state and local government.

“We need capital. We need resources. We need a real plan to get people back home and rebuild the infrastructure,” Mike Furnari, who lost his home in the Palisades fire, told The Post. “Why haven’t we learned from past fire rebuilds? The capital is here. The infrastructure is here. Look at where we are, this is one of the most incredible places in the world. Highest value per square foot, highest land value per square foot in the country.”

Trump’s order also requires FEMA to investigate whether California complied with the law, after his administration made more than $3 billion available to people and businesses affected by the fires. The order directs FEMA “to determine whether any of California’s nearly $3 billion in unspent Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funds were awarded arbitrarily or contrary to law, and to conduct a full audit of California’s use of those funds.” Most of that $3 billion is in the form of low-interest disaster loans for homeowners and business owners.

Last year, Trump also signed executive orders to address wildfire response and mitigation, and said last January that he directed the Army Corps of Engineers to release billions of gallons of water to Southern California to support the firefighting effort. The move was criticized by local California officials, who warned that releasing that much water could flood farms and have no impact on fighting or preventing fires.

President Donald Trump met with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for nearly two hours in the Oval Office on Monday evening, The New York Times reported. Trump and Noem met shortly after the president sent his border czar, Tom Homan, to Minneapolis in an apparent shakeup of immigration enforcement in Minnesota.

The Oval Office meeting was requested by Noem, according to two people who spoke to the Times on the condition of anonymity. Corey Lewandowski, a top Trump adviser and temporary government employee, was also in the meeting. During the meeting, Trump did not suggest that Noem’s job was at risk, the Times reported. The Daily Wire reached out to the White House for comment.

Noem and Lewandowski are on one side of a growing divide in the Trump administration over how it handles immigration operations, while Homan and acting ICE Director Todd Lyons are on the other side, The Daily Wire reported on Monday. Homan and Lyons have opposed some of Noem’s theatrical tactics and would rather focus on arresting violent, illegal immigrant criminals.

Trump’s Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, and Communications Director Steven Cheung were also in the meeting on Monday evening.

On Monday, the administration reportedly relieved Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino of his duties of overseeing operations across the country. Bovino, who had been in Minneapolis, will now head back to the El Centro sector of the California border. Bovino has sided with Noem and against Homan over how to handle immigration operations. After he was relieved of his duties on Monday, Bovino was also locked out of his official social media accounts, CNN reported. Bovino and some Customs and Border Protection agents are expected to leave Minneapolis on Tuesday.

The shakeup comes shortly after an armed Minneapolis resident was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent on Saturday. The resident, Alex Pretti, was shot around 10 times in five seconds during an alleged confrontation with federal agents during an immigration operation. The shooting and the Department of Homeland Security’s response sparked backlash, even among some Republicans.

After the shooting, Secretary Noem called Pretti a “domestic terrorist” and suggested that carrying a firearm at a protest meant he was there “to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.” So far, there is no evidence that Pretti planned on using his firearm against federal agents, and video appears to show that he was disarmed before he was shot. An investigation into the shooting is ongoing.

Sources inside Noem’s department told Daily Wire reporter Jennie Taer that the Homeland Security secretary’s comment “was a horrible response.”

“It was a horrible response,” said one official. “Many people I’ve heard from say it was unprofessional. She doesn’t know what she’s doing.”

“The people in DHS are frustrated with Secretary Noem and the way DHS is handling the media,” the official added. “The employees want a more professional response, not memes and one-liners.”

Leavitt said on Monday that Homan taking the point in Minneapolis does not mean Noem’s job is in jeopardy, adding that Noem “will continue to lead the Department of Homeland Security with the full trust and confidence of the president.”

“Tom Homan is uniquely positioned to drop everything and focus solely on Minnesota to solve the problems that have been created by the lack of cooperation from state and local officials,” Leavitt added.