President Donald Trump travels to Texas on Friday amid rising questions on how native officers responded to the devastating floods, in addition to questions concerning the federal response — together with FEMA’s destiny — that he has thus far prevented.
Trump’s go to comes per week after heavy rainfall triggered the Guadalupe River in Kerr County to rise 26 toes in lower than an hour, killing at the least 121, together with dozens of youngsters on the close by Christian summer season camp, Camp Mystic.
He and first woman Melania Trump will go to flood-affected areas, based on a press release from the primary woman’s workplace.
The seek for greater than 170 individuals nonetheless lacking continues with greater than 2,100 responders on the bottom in Kerr County from native, state and federal companies.
In the meantime, native officers are below scrutiny about what steps had been taken to adequately warn individuals and the way lengthy it took for authorities to take motion based mostly on escalating climate and different alerts.
Trump, notably, hasn’t engaged in comparable criticism about how the disaster was dealt with — as he has performed within the case of different disasters.
“I might simply say this can be a hundred-year disaster, and it is simply so horrible to look at,” Trump mentioned on Sunday.
President Donald Trump walks towards the media with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick earlier than boarding Air Power One, at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, N.J., July 6, 2025.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
As an alternative, Trump has largely targeted on his relationship with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — a Republican and robust ally of the president.
“We have been in contact with Governor Abbott, I am very near Governor Abbott, and all people in Texas,” Trump mentioned on Sunday.
It is a marked distinction to how Trump has reacted up to now, together with to the California wildfires earlier this 12 months, the place he blasted California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and different native Democratic officers.
A number of the hardest-hit areas of central Texas, together with Kerr County, are areas of robust Republican help that voted for Trump within the 2024 election.
Trump authorized a serious catastrophe declaration for Texas earlier this week.
Abbott mentioned throughout a information convention on Tuesday that he spoke with Trump that morning and acquired assurances that help could be supplied.
“He couldn’t cease speaking about how unhappy he was for all of the little women who’ve misplaced their lives,” Abbott mentioned. “He recounted his personal understanding of what occurred with what was actually a tsunami wave, a wall of water, that swept too a lot of them away.”
“And he cares rather a lot about these younger girls. And he needs to step up and make it possible for any want that now we have right here in Texas goes to be met in a short time,” Abbott continued.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks throughout a press convention, July 8, 2025, after touring harm from flash flooding in Hunt, Texas.
Eli Hartman/AP
The White Home has pushed back heavily on criticism of the administration’s cuts to the Nationwide Weather Service, which led to some to query if staffing ranges or forecasting talents had been impacted.
“Blaming President Trump for these floods is a wicked lie, and it serves no function throughout this time of nationwide mourning,” White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt mentioned from the briefing room podium on Monday.
Trump’s additionally prevented answering questions on whether or not he’s nonetheless aiming to section out the Federal Emergency Administration Company.
Division of Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem, mentioned the federal response to the floods throughout a Cupboard assembly on Tuesday.
“We as a federal authorities do not handle these disasters, the state does,” Noem contended. “We are available in and help them. And that is precisely what we did right here on this state of affairs. FEMA went to an enhanced stage instantly. However as quickly as you signed the most important catastrophe declaration, we had been in a position to get them sources and {dollars} straight away, identical to you envisioned by state lot grants to assist them with cleanup. And we’re nonetheless there in presence.”
A automobile drives by a street flooded by the waters of the Guadalupe River, in Hunt, Texas, July 9, 2025.
Umit Bektas/Reuters
Later within the week, although, Noem went after FEMA throughout the Biden and different earlier administrations — alleging the company has suffered from “gross mismanagement and negligence.”
“The record of well-known failures is staggering,” Noem claimed in feedback to the FEMA Advisory Council, a activity pressure designed to advocate reforms to the company, together with potential dismantlement of the company because it exists right this moment. Trump appointed Abbott as a brand new member to the group again in April.
Appearing FEMA Administrator David Richardson had but to go to the affected areas in Texas as of Thursday afternoon.
ABC Information’ Luke Barr and Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.
