Yes, FEMA's going to text a 'presidential alert.' No, Trump won't text you his tweets.

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last updated 16 September 2018

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will send most cell phone owners in the United States a text message Thursday.

It's a test of the agency's "presidential alert" system, which allows the president to send out national texts in the event of a catastrophe. The test message will read, "THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed."

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While some have worried President Trump will use the presidential alert for personal or political ends, the texting system will not be an extension of his Twitter feed. Though "FEMA is under control of the executive branch (the head of FEMA is selected by the president, and reports to the Department of Homeland Security)," New York magazine explains. "The agency would have a vested interest in not seeing their alert system bent toward, uh, non-emergency ends."

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

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