Trump defends federal government’s response to Hill Country floods during Texas visit

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

---

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and Texas lawmakers on Friday defended the federal government’s response to the deadly July Fourth flooding in Central Texas, claiming that aid was quickly dispatched to reeling communities after the floodwaters swept through.

Making his first visit to Texas since the floods, which killed at least 120 people, Trump toured a part of the disaster site near the Guadalupe River in Kerrville, received briefings from local officials and sat for a roundtable with first responders and other officials. After the event, in response to a reporter’s question about whether federal weather forecasters properly warned of the impending floods, Trump stood by his administration’s response, saying that “everyone did an incredible job, under the circumstances.”

He then bristled at the question and labeled the inquiring reporter “evil.”

“Only a bad person would ask a question like that,” he said.

Other roundtable participants rallied to the president’s defense and praised the pace of the federal government’s response.

“Pointing fingers is for losers,” Rep. Chip Roy said, invoking similar comments made by Gov. Greg Abbott at a news conference earlier in the week. The Austin Republican, whose district was hit hardest by the storm, was effusive in his praise for Trump.

“I can't thank you enough,” he said to the president. “When I called you on Friday, you said, ‘whatever you need.’”

Abbott, who sat to Trump’s left at the roundtable, said it was “the fastest I'm aware of any administration responding so swiftly, so collaboratively, so coordinated as we have in response to this.”

The White House previously defended the quality of its weather forecasts and warnings, insisting they were “timely and precise” and undisturbed by staffing cuts at the National Weather Service. In the days since, scrutiny has shifted to how the federal government has responded, as reports have emerged that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has moved slower than expected to help with recovery and search-and-rescue efforts.

On Sunday, two days after the flooding began, Trump signed a major disaster declaration at Abbott’s request, freeing up federal funds for the recovery efforts.

The aid package includes grants for temporary housing, funds for repairing damaged homes and facilities, and low-cost loans for uninsured property losses.

Statewide leaders, including Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, underscored that lawmakers will work during the upcoming special legislative session to find solutions that could prevent similar tragedies.

Abbott said the session, scheduled to begin July 21, will give community members a chance to “weigh in” on how the Legislature should respond. One such venue, Patrick said, will be a legislative hearing in Kerrville where residents hit by the flood will get to share “their stories, their needs and their wants.”

Accompanying Trump on his flight from Washington to Central Texas were Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, along with Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, a former Texas state lawmaker whose agency has coordinated parts of the federal response to past Texas disasters, such as Hurricane Harvey.

Rep. Wesley Hunt, a Houston Republican who is considering a Senate primary run against Cornyn, was the only House member to accompany Trump on Air Force One.

On the ground, Trump was joined by nearly every Republican from Texas’ congressional delegation.

Texas’ devastating floods have refocused attention on the president’s plans for FEMA — one of the main coordinating hubs of the recovery efforts. Trump has previously suggested the agency should be significantly reduced and have many of its recovery functions shifted to the states.

“A governor should be able to handle it, and frankly, if they can’t handle it, the aftermath, then maybe they shouldn’t be governor,” he said at the White House in June.

Some Texas leaders have supported Trump’s call, including Abbott, who was named earlier this year to a council tasked with recommending changes to the agency. At the council’s first meeting in May, Abbott said states “have proven that we can move more nimbly, more swiftly, more effectively” than FEMA, which he characterized as “slow and clunky.”

The Kerrville floods are raising fresh questions about whether a scaled-back agency could do enough to help states respond to serious disasters.

Trump’s administration has reportedly backed off plans to wind down the agency, instead pivoting to a potential “rebrand” that would center state officials in future disaster response.

In a statement, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson denied the report and said Trump was committed to “empowering state and local governments by enabling them to better understand, plan for and ultimately address the needs of their citizens.” Discussions on how to restructure FEMA are ongoing, Jackson said.

Some Republicans have touted FEMA’s importance in the days since the floods. Cruz called the agency’s response “incredibly important,” adding that he would be open to seeing it restructured to become more “nimble.”

On Thursday, ten House Democrats from Texas signed a letter requesting a hearing to probe the federal government’s response preparedness and “the damaging role that the Trump administration has played in weakening the federal government’s capacity to respond to disasters.”

In the wake of the flooding, some rescue efforts and resources have been slowed by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s cost-cutting policy of personally signing off on any contract or grant FEMA awards over $100,000, CNN reported. Agency officials created a task force earlier this week to expedite the process, according to NBC News.

Noem, whose department includes FEMA, has stood by the new protocols and FEMA’s overall response, calling the CNN report “absolutely trash.”

A group of Texas Democrats, led by Reps. Greg Casar of Austin and Jasmine Crockett of Dallas, sent a letter to the FEMA administrator Monday asking for clarification on the policy.

After Trump’s Texas visit Friday, The New York Times reported that two days after the floods, FEMA didn’t answer nearly two-thirds of disaster assistance calls because hundreds of call center contractors were fired when their contracts expired July 5. Noem didn’t renew the contracts until five days later, the Times reported.