As Texas continues to reel from one of the deadliest flash flood disasters in state history, political tensions in Washington have flared into open conflict over who should bear responsibility.
With the death toll now surpassing 80 and dozens still missing—including young girls and counselors from a summer camp in the Hill Country—Democrats have turned the catastrophe into a political weapon, seeking to blame President Donald Trump for staffing vacancies at the National Weather Service (NWS).
The White House, however, is forcefully rejecting those accusations, calling them “depraved” and “despicable,” and warning that partisan grandstanding is threatening to overshadow the suffering of real families on the ground.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday took to the podium to condemn remarks made by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Rep. Joaquin Castro, among others, who have attempted to link Trump administration reforms at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to the deadly flood event in Central Texas.
“Blaming President Trump for these floods is a depraved lie, and it serves no purpose during this time of national mourning,” Leavitt said, her tone unflinching.
“Unfortunately, in the wake of this once-in-a-generation natural disaster, we have seen many falsehoods pushed by Democrats like Senator Schumer and some members of the media.”
Indeed, the New York Times published a report over the weekend noting that key NWS positions in Texas were vacant as torrential rainfall inundated the region.
While the report acknowledged that some vacancies predate the Trump administration, it also highlighted that vacancy rates have increased since the beginning of Trump’s second term.
That thin thread has been seized upon by Trump’s political opponents to suggest a direct connection between administrative reshuffling and lives lost.
However, Republicans—and many weather professionals—push back on that narrative. The claim that the NWS failed to issue adequate warnings has been debunked by several meteorologists and emergency response experts, who point to a detailed timeline showing that forecasts were issued early, repeatedly, and with increasing urgency. What ultimately failed, they argue, was not the federal warning system, but the local communication infrastructure and public response.
John Sokich, a veteran of the NWS and former legislative director of the agency’s union, told media outlets that the storm had been well forecasted. “There was nothing wrong with the science,” Sokich said.
“The challenge was getting people to act on the information. And that’s a local challenge.” Sokich has also gone on record defending the federal staff’s performance, emphasizing that the forecast warnings became more specific and urgent as the event approached.
The Trump administration had in fact begun restructuring NOAA earlier this year to address long-standing inefficiencies and to reassign experienced staff to the most critical offices.
That effort included realigning underutilized personnel to regions where need was greatest, including Texas. But critics seized on this internal reorganization as proof of negligence, ignoring the fact that the Texas NWS offices were still issuing real-time updates and emergency messages throughout the crisis.
Leavitt did not mince words when addressing the political exploitation of the tragedy. “I just think those comments are depraved and despicable,” she said. “The National Weather Service did its job. The science worked. And now Democratic elected officials are trying to turn this into a political game. It is not. This is a national tragedy.”
She further confirmed that President Trump is expected to visit Texas later this week—tentatively scheduled for Friday—though plans are being coordinated with state officials to avoid disrupting ongoing search, rescue, and recovery operations.
“The President is deeply moved by the heartbreaking loss of life in Texas,” Leavitt added. “He has been receiving continuous updates and is in direct contact with FEMA and Governor Abbott. He wants the people of Texas to know they are not alone.”
Critics of the President’s response are choosing to ignore the full scope of federal assistance already deployed. Within hours of the first flash flood warnings, FEMA activated rapid-response teams and began delivering aid to affected counties.
Dozens of water rescue crews, helicopters, and temporary shelters have since been established, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been working to assess damaged levees and infrastructure.
In addition, Trump has signed an emergency declaration freeing up millions in disaster relief funds and has directed federal agencies to expedite their support to Texas. The administration’s response has been swift and multifaceted—yet coverage of these efforts has been largely drowned out by accusations over weather staffing.
Representative Joaquin Castro, a Democrat from Texas, appeared on CNN over the weekend questioning whether the flood disaster was exacerbated by insufficient NWS staffing.
“When you have flash flooding, there’s a risk that you won’t have the personnel to do the predictions in the best way,” he said, while admitting he couldn’t say conclusively whether that was the case. Yet that nuance was quickly lost in the media frenzy.
What Democrats are conveniently ignoring, however, is the broader context behind the Trump administration’s NOAA reform. In recent years, NOAA has struggled with budget inefficiencies, staffing redundancies, and technological obsolescence.
President Trump’s team has sought to modernize the agency while reallocating resources to areas with the most urgent needs. That means prioritizing not just staffing, but also satellite upgrades, radar expansion, and improving public alert systems.
Karoline Leavitt pointed this out on Monday, saying, “The President inherited a broken system and is working to make it stronger. NOAA’s core mission has never changed—to protect American lives and property. That mission was upheld in Texas. The tragedy was not in the warning, but in the failure of people to heed those warnings, in the breakdown of local evacuation planning, and in the underestimation of risk.”
Indeed, researchers in disaster communication have long pointed out that warning systems are only as effective as the public’s willingness to act on them. University of Texas professor Keri Stephens, who studies emergency communication, has repeatedly highlighted that many Texans do not understand what a flash flood truly entails, nor how fast water levels can rise.
According to her research, the ubiquitous message “Turn Around, Don’t Drown” often fails to influence behavior, especially among younger adults.
Stephens suggests that a combination of alert fatigue, poor risk perception, and lack of public education all contribute to the deadly outcomes. “People don’t understand what it means to see a 20-foot rise in water in under an hour,” she noted in a recent report. “That’s not a failure of government forecasting—that’s a failure in public comprehension and preparedness.”
That context is vital in assessing what really happened in Texas. It is easier for politicians to blame Washington than to reckon with local preparedness shortcomings or the general public’s risk tolerance.
Democratic lawmakers like Senator Schumer have demanded an investigation into NWS staffing levels, but have not proposed concrete solutions to improve flood resilience at the community level.
In contrast, Trump has urged Congress to fast-track funding for modern alert systems, such as sirens triggered by rising river gauges—systems already in place in some states but absent in much of Central Texas.
A bill introduced earlier this year to build such systems statewide was blocked in the Texas Senate, despite having bipartisan support in the House. Ironically, one of the bill’s opponents was a Democrat who now publicly criticizes the lack of warnings.
This contradiction underscores a grim political reality: while Democrats blame the White House, they themselves have failed to prioritize disaster readiness when it mattered most.
President Trump’s visit to Texas will likely bring these issues into sharper focus, offering an opportunity to reset the narrative and remind the country that real leadership is measured in action, not finger-pointing.
As families mourn, and communities struggle to rebuild, the stakes are too high for partisan games. The dead deserve better than political scapegoating.
And President Trump, undeterred by the noise, remains focused on providing federal support, securing the border, and restoring confidence in America’s disaster response systems—because leadership means showing up, not just pointing fingers.
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