Deadly flooding in Texas along the Guadalupe River has put to the test President Donald Trump’s vows to possibly eliminate or “wean off” the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Trump in recent weeks has called the agency too expensive and too ineffective. But with over 120 people killed in the Texas flooding, including three dozen children, the president’s targeting of the federal disaster response organization has come under new scrutiny and potentially presents him with a political problem.
“This is a tough one. … I’ve never seen anything like this. A narrow little river that became a monster,” Trump said at a round table in Kerrville, Texas, after touring the devastation from the rising and rushing waters of the Guadalupe with first lady Melania Trump and other officials. “It [was] like a giant wave in the Pacific.”
Before he mocked a local reporter for asking if alerts about the rising water went out fast enough, Trump praised the “tremendous spirit” of the victims’ families he’d met privately with earlier and credited Coast Guard search and rescue crews and local emergency service officials. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott got a shout-out, as did several Cabinet members and Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Chip Roy, the local congressman whom Trump said was “not easy” to win over during negotiations about the massive tax and spending law enacted earlier this month.
One name not on the list of individuals whom Trump thanked: David Richardson, the acting FEMA administrator who was notably absent Friday. An agency spokesperson did not respond to a question about why Richardson was not with Trump in Texas. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose department includes FEMA, was there, as was TV personality Dr. Phil McGraw, who offered words of inspiration on Trump’s prompting: “You don’t get over it. You get through it.”
The president, who in January ordered a review of FEMA and its operations, returned to office with the agency in his budget-cutting and government-shrinking plans. During a Hurricane Helene recovery briefing near Asheville, N.C., on Jan. 24 — his fourth day back in office — Trump floated the idea of “fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA, or maybe getting rid of FEMA.”
But this week, administration officials seemed to lighten their collective tone about the agency’s future.
“FEMA has deployed multiple emergency response units, and FEMA has been really headed by some very good people,” Trump said. “[FEMA] failed us in North Carolina, but when we got in on Jan. 20, they fixed it up in no time.”
Russ Vought, the Office of Management and Budget director, told reporters at the White House earlier Friday that senior administration officials “want FEMA to be reformed,” adding: “We want FEMA to work well. … The president is going to continue to be asking tough questions of all of his agencies.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also did not bring up Trump’s previous comments when asked about his earlier talk of ending the agency.
“The president wants to ensure American citizens always have what they need during times of need,” she said at a Monday briefing. “Whether that assistance comes from states or the federal government, that’s a policy discussion that will continue.”
One reason for the Trump team’s FEMA frustrations: The agency often racks up bills into the billions of dollars as it helps states deal with and recover from natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes and floods.
“We’re moving it back to the states, so the governors can handle it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on June 10. “The FEMA thing has not been a very successful experiment. Very, very expensive, and it doesn’t get the job done.”
“When you have a tornado or a hurricane or you have a problem of any kind, in a state, that’s what you have governors for. They’re supposed to fix those problems,” he added. “And it’s much more local. And they’ll develop a system. And I think it will be a great system.”
But most state chief executives and their legislatures lack the funding to go solo on footing the massive bills associated with preparing for, managing and bouncing back from a natural disaster. And Trump himself has credited FEMA for assisting Texas state officials after last weekend’s deadly flooding.
“We’re working very close with representatives from Texas,” he told reporters Sunday. Asked about his FEMA overhaul proposal, he said: “Well, FEMA is something we can talk about later. But, right now, they’re busy working. So we’ll leave it at that.”
‘Good job’
During a Tuesday Cabinet meeting at the White House, Trump told Noem her team had done a “good job” in Texas. She then described how FEMA had already begun operating differently — and did not bring up her boss’ expressed desire to shutter it.
“We as a federal government don’t manage these disasters, the state does. We come in and support them, and that’s exactly what we did here in this situation. FEMA went to an enhanced level immediately,” Noem told the president as officials sat around the brown oval table in the Cabinet Room.
“And FEMA has been deployed and we’re cutting through the paperwork of the old FEMA, streamlining it much like your vision of how FEMA should operate,” she added.
Democratic lawmakers and governors have made clear they want the federal disaster assistance spigot to remain on.
Connecticut Sen. Christopher S. Murphy, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee, contended Tuesday that FEMA “has been under assault” since Trump returned to office.
“The fact of the matter is it’s possible that Donald Trump’s policies had something to do with the level of death and destruction in Texas,” he said in a video posted on social media.
‘Conspiracy theories’
White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson pushed back in her own X post, calling Murphy’s allegations about Texas weather forecasting centers being understaffed “debunked conspiracy theories.”
House Homeland Security ranking member Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and fellow Democratic panelist Julie Elizabeth Johnson of Texas pressed committee Chairman Mark E. Green in a letter to hold a hearing about the federal government’s preparedness to respond to the Texas floods.
“The flooding … raises serious concerns about FEMA’s readiness,” Thompson and Johnson wrote Green, who is set to resign from the House on July 20. “The potential gaps in the emergency alert system during this catastrophe did not occur in a vacuum. The Trump administration has taken alarming steps to weaken FEMA’s ability to carry out its mission.
“The danger is not over — in fact, the most active part of the hurricane season has not yet begun,” they added.
North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat elected in a battleground state Trump has won three times, took umbrage with the suggestion that all 50 states could be equipped to handle every disaster that hits them.
“We don’t get a huge storm every year. The country does,” Stein told CNBC on Thursday. “It doesn’t make sense for each state to have a fully staffed emergency response team.”
The devastation in Texas could cause lawmakers, even some Republicans, to question the administration’s proposed cuts to FEMA spending in the administration’s fiscal 2026 budget.
At a hearing in May, West Virginia GOP Sen. Shelly Moore Capito told Noem she was concerned over the impact agency cuts would have on a small state like hers, which often faces natural disasters like flooding.
“My experience with FEMA, has it been flawless? Has it been, you know, a smooth road? No,” Capito said. “But I think it’s a vital function, and I am concerned, if we turn it all over to the states, the capacity for the state to really handle this is something that — so I would ask you to tread lightly.”
Chris Johnson contributed to this report.
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