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TRUMP AND TEXAS REPUBLICANS SHOW HOW NOT TO PREPARE FOR THE CLIMATE
CRISIS  
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Kenny Stancil
July 8, 2025
Common Dreams
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_ In an era of escalating climate threats, we need a stronger public
sector with more resources to mitigate risks, help people weather
storms, and adapt for the future. _

Trees emerge from flood waters along the Guadalupe River on July 4,
2025 in Kerrville, Texas. , Eric Vryn/Getty Images)

 

Since Friday, more than 80 people, including dozens of young summer
camp attendees, have died
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in Central Texas from flooding intensified
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fuel-driven climate crisis. With search-and-rescue operations ongoing
and active flash flood warnings in the region, the death toll is
expected to continue climbing.

Over the weekend, Texas officials quickly tried to blame
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on inadequate warnings from the National Weather Service (NWS), which
has been gutted
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by the Trump administration. President Donald Trump
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this, too. When asked if he thinks the federal government should
rehire recently fired meteorologists, he erroneously
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“nobody expected” this flooding and that NWS staff “didn’t see
it.”

However, NWS provided
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accurate forecasts and warnings _despite_ everything that Trump and
Elon Musk’s DOGE [[link removed]] wrecking
crew have been doing to impair
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the agency.

We sorely need a return to the Rooseveltian ideal of big government
that works for working people, including by phasing out the fossil
fuel industry and protecting us from increasingly frequent and severe
storms, heatwaves, and wildfires.

That’s not to suggest that the Trump administration’s ill-advised
cuts to the federal forecasting apparatus couldn’t have contributed
to lethal havoc on the ground. Local NWS offices were missing
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key officials, which may have undermined swift and cohesive
coordination between forecasters and local emergency managers.

Tom Fahy, the legislative director for the National Weather Service
Employees Organization (the union representing NWS workers), told
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New York Times_ that the agency’s San Angelo office, which covers
many of the hardest-hit areas, was missing a senior hydrologist, staff
forecaster, and a meteorologist-in-charge.

The nearby NWS office in San Antonio “also had significant
vacancies, including a warning coordination meteorologist and science
officer,” the _Times _reported
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“Staff members in those positions are meant to work with local
emergency managers to plan for floods, including when and how to warn
local residents and help them evacuate.” The warning coordination
meteorologist reportedly left on April 30, accepting the Trump
administration’s early retirement offer. This runs counter to
Trump’s weekend claim
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that his policies didn’t lead to vacancies.

In early May, _CNN_ reported
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that 30 of NWS’ 122 weather forecast offices around the country were
missing a meteorologist-in-charge. Former and current agency personnel
made clear that the absence of chief meteorologists and other leaders
could jeopardize timely communications between forecasters, the media,
and local emergency managers.

 

Texas Officials Compounded Trump’s Recklessness

Making matters worse, Texas lawmakers earlier this year refused
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to pass a bill that would have improved local disaster warning
systems. Rob Kelly, the top elected official in Kerr County, the
flood-prone jurisdiction
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where most of the deaths have occurred, said
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that officials considered
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installing a warning system years ago but declined due to the
purportedly high cost.

In the aftermath of increasingly common climate disasters, it becomes
clear why, when someone asserts that investments in risk reduction are
“expensive,” the response
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“compared with what?”

According to
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Guardian_, “Questions are also being asked” about whether Kerr
County officials “had approved development along the river bank that
may have skirted rules issued
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by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that control where
homes may be built in areas vulnerable to flooding.”

It should be noted here that advocates of the so-called abundance
agenda, which we have warned
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to launder unpopular neoliberal policies, have repeatedly held up
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Texas as a model to be emulated, implying that circumventing
environmental regulations to build more housing is sound policy.

Similar Disasters Are Coming. Trump Must Be Held Accountable

Amid the flooding on July 4, Trump signed into law the GOP’s budget
reconciliation bill, which will curtail clean energy and expand
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the fossil fuel combustion that supercharges extreme weather. A few
days earlier, the Trump administration submitted a budget request
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to Congress that would eliminate
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climate research at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA), the parent agency of NWS.

On July 5, Trump approved Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) request for a
major disaster declaration. While it remains to be seen, the federal
response could be hobbled due to Trump and Musk’s ongoing war
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on FEMA.

In short, the Trump administration is simultaneously exacerbating
climate change and eroding society’s ability to understand, prepare
for, and respond to it. This is precisely the opposite of what should
be happening right now.

The deadly Texas floods will not be the last
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manifestation of extreme weather turbocharged by fossil fuel
pollution. In an era of escalating climate threats, we need a stronger
public sector with more resources to mitigate risks, help people
weather storms, and adapt for the future.

For too long, neoliberal Democrats have joined Republicans in bashing
the government and calling for deregulation, austerity, and
privatization. In February, Matthew Yglesias went so far as to
encourage
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Democrats to “channel their inner DOGE,” portraying party
elites’ abandonment of FDR’s New Deal politics—from Jimmy Carter
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Barack Obama—as a step in the right direction.

In fact, we sorely need a return
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to the Rooseveltian ideal of big government that works for working
people, including by phasing out
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the fossil fuel industry and protecting us from increasingly frequent
and severe storms, heatwaves, and wildfires.

In the meantime, congressional Democrats must not neglect their
oversight duties. They ought
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to launch investigations and ruthlessly question the Trump
administration’s culpability in the Texas flooding disaster.

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Kenny Stancil is senior researcher at the Revolving Door Project and a
former staff writer for Common Dreams.

* Central Texas Flooding; National Weather Service; Trump Cuts;
Climate Crisis;
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