Trump plans to tour Texas flood damage as the scope of the disaster
tests his pledge to shutter FEMA
[July 11, 2025]
By WILL WEISSERT
WASHINGTON (AP) — As President Donald Trump heads to Texas on Friday for
a firsthand look at the devastation caused by catastrophic flooding, he
has remained conspicuously quiet about his previous promises to do away
with the federal agency in charge of disaster relief.
The Trump administration isn’t backing away from its pledges to shutter
the Federal Emergency Management Agency and return disaster response to
the states. But since the July 4 disaster, which has killed at least 120
people, the president and his top aides have focused on the
once-in-a-lifetime nature of what occurred and the human tragedy
involved rather than the government-slashing crusade that's been popular
with Trump’s core supporters.
“Nobody ever saw a thing like this coming,” Trump told NBC News on
Thursday, adding, ”This is a once-in-every-200-year deal.” He's also
suggested he'd have been ready to visit Texas within hours but didn't
want to burden authorities still searching for the more than 170 people
who are still missing.
Trump's shift in focus underscores how tragedy can complicate political
calculations, even though Trump has made slashing the federal workforce
and charging ally-turned-antagonistElon Musk with dramatically shrinking
the size of government centerpieces of his administration's opening
months.
The president is expected to do an aerial tour of some of the hard-hit
areas.
The White House also says he'll visit the state emergency operations
center to meet with first responders and relatives of flood victims.
Trump will also get a briefing from officials. Republican Gov. Greg
Abbott, Sen. John Cornyn and Sen. Ted Cruz are joining the visit, with
the GOP senators expected to fly to their state with Trump aboard Air
Force One.
It's relatively common for presidents visiting disaster sites to tour
the damage by air, a move that can ease the logistical burdens on
authorities on the ground.
Trump's predecessor, President Joe Biden, observed the aftermath of
Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina and Hurricane Milton in
Florida last fall by air before meeting with disaster response officials
and victims on the ground.
Trump, though, has also used past disaster response efforts to launch
political attacks. While still a candidate trying to win back the
presidency, Trump made his own visit to North Carolina after Helene last
year and accused the Biden administration of blocking disaster aid to
victims in Republican-heavy areas.
First lady Melania Trump will accompany the president Friday, marking
the second time this term that she has joined her husband to tour a
natural disaster site.
During his first weekend back in the White House, Trump again visited
North Carolina to scope out Helene damage and toured the aftermath of
devastating wildfires in Los Angeles. But he also used those trips to
sharply criticize the Biden administration and California officials.
Trump has promised repeatedly — and as recently as last month — to begin
“phasing out” FEMA and bring disaster response management “down to the
state level.”
During Tuesday's Cabinet meeting, Trump didn't mention those plans and
instead praised the federal flooding response. Turning to Homeland
Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose department oversees FEMA, he said,
“You had people there as fast as anybody’s ever seen.”
[to top of second column]
|
Kerrville residents Edgar Rojas, second from left, and his wife
Perla, alongside daughters Emily, left, and Olivia, visit a memorial
for flood victims along the Guadalupe River on Thursday, July 10,
2025, in Kerrville, Texas. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Pressed this week on whether the White House will continue to work
to shutter FEMA, press secretary Karoline Leavitt wouldn't say.
“The president wants to ensure American citizens always have what
they need during times of need,” Leavitt said. “Whether that
assistance comes from states or the federal government, that is a
policy discussion that will continue.”
While the focus is on FEMA at the federal level, local officials
have come under mounting scrutiny over how much they were prepared
and how quickly they acted. But not everyone affected has been quick
to point fingers.
Darrin Potter, a Kerr County, Texas, resident for 25 years who saw
ankle-high flooding in his home and said he knew people killed,
said, “As far as early warnings, I’m sure they can improve on that."
But he said all the talk about evacuating was missing something
important. The area where a wall of water ripped through was a
two-lane road, he said.
“If you would have evacuated at 5 in the morning, all of those
people would have been washed away on this road," he said.
During the Cabinet meeting, Noem described traveling to Texas and
seeing heartbreaking scenes, including around Camp Mystic, the
century-old all-girls Christian summer camp where at least 27 people
were killed.
“The parents that were looking for their children and picking up
their daughter's stuffed animals out of the mud and finding their
daughter’s shoe that might be laying in the cabin," she said.
Noem said that “just hugging and comforting people matters a lot”
and “this is a time for all of us in this country to remember that
we were created to serve each other.”
But the secretary is also co-chairing a FEMA review council charged
with submitting suggestions for how to overhaul the agency in coming
months.
“We as a federal government don’t manage these disasters. The state
does,” Noem told Trump on Tuesday.
She also referenced the administration's government-reducing
efforts, saying: ”We’re cutting through the paperwork of the old
FEMA. Streamlining it, much like your vision of how FEMA should
operate.”
___
Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim in Washington and Nadia
Lathan in Ingram, Texas, contributed to this report.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
