As search teams in Texas work through Sunday to locate flood victims after the Guadalupe River overflowed days earlier, government officials have begun to point fingers over who is to blame for the deadly disaster.
At a press conference, Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd said, "Listen, everybody got the forecast from the National Weather Service. It did not predict the amount of rain that we saw."
In the same briefing, Dalton Rice, the city manager for Kerrville, Texas, said that the catastrophic flash flooding happened because the skies “dumped more rain than what was forecasted."
The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a flash flood warning at 1:14 a.m. Friday for a portion of Kerr County, where the majority of flood-related deaths have been reported. However, it would be at least four hours before any county or city government entity posted evacuation directions on social media, reported KXAN.
The NWS was among the government agencies targeted by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in its effort to streamline the federal bureaucracy, resulting in the loss of approximately 600 staffers.
In May, all five living former directors of the NWS—a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), sent a letter expressing concerns that proposed budget cuts under the Donald Trump administration "leave the nation’s official weather forecasting entity at a significant deficit… just as we head into the busiest time for severe storm predictions like tornadoes and hurricanes.” The letter stated that under-resourced forecast offices could lead to preventable loss of life.
This policy aligns with Project 2025, a proposal initiated by the Heritage Foundation that advocates for significant reforms to the federal government, including the "dismantling" of NOAA. Additionally, Trump has proposed eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), suggesting that states should primarily manage their own preparations and responses to extreme weather. Disbanding FEMA would necessitate legislative action from Congress.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem criticized the current system used to alert the public about potential weather threats, “When President Trump took office… he said he wanted to fix [that], and is currently upgrading the technology. And the National Weather Service has indicated that with that and NOAA, that we needed to renew this ancient system that has been left in place with the federal government for many, many years, and that is the reforms that are ongoing,” Noem explained.
During the joint press conference with Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Noem confirmed that President Trump has already committed to honoring the governor's federal disaster declaration request, ensuring rapid deployment of federal resources. Approval of a federal disaster declaration speeds up the allocation of emergency resources and funding. Long-term recovery efforts will focus on rebuilding infrastructure and assessing flood preparedness measures for the region, which has a history of flooding.
In a message on Truth Social, Trump said, "Melania and I are praying for all of the families impacted by this horrible tragedy. Our Brave First Responders are on site doing what they do best. GOD BLESS THE FAMILIES, AND GOD BLESS TEXAS!"
Scientists and experts attribute climate change as a significant factor in increasing the intensity and frequency of extreme rainfall events, such as the one experienced in Texas. A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, leading to heavier downpours. Some studies suggest this event is "precisely" the type of rainfall scientists expect to become more common due to a warming climate.
On Friday, Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a $4 trillion tax and spending package proposed by congressional Republicans. This legislation effectively eliminates the key climate and clean energy provisions included in the Inflation Reduction Act, which was signed into law by then-President Joe Biden in 2022.
Over the past several hours, rescue teams have successfully saved more than 850 individuals using helicopters, boats, and drones to locate victims and assist those stranded in trees and isolated camps. Local officials report that at least 51 people, including 15 children, have lost their lives due to the flooding in Texas.Hugo Balta is the executive editor of the Fulcrum and the publisher of the Latino News Network.
SUGGESTION: Just the Facts: Trump Signs ‘Big Beautiful Bill’
U.S. President Donald Trump, joined by first lady Melania Trump, delivers remarks during an Independence Day military family picnic on the South Lawn of the White House on July 04, 2025 in Washington, DC. At the picnic President Trump signed the One, Big Beautiful Bill Act into law. Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images
image of U.S. President Donald Trump is displayed on a digital billboard in Times Square in New York on April 8, 2026.
Trump is stuck between two realities. Neither serves the American people
Normally, I worry that events may overtake a column. But not so with the Iran war.
I don’t worry about running afoul of a headline or Truth Social post from the president because what is said about the situation is no longer very relevant to the reality.
On April 8, Nick Catoggio, my Dispatch colleague, dubbed an earlier stoppage with Iran “Schrödinger’s ceasefire.” This was a reference to the famous thought experiment by the physicist Erwin Schrödinger, who was trying to explain the weirdness of “superpositionality” in quantum physics. A cat in a box is both dead and alive at the same time until you open the box. Schrödinger meant to illustrate the absurdity of the idea that particles aren’t any one thing, but a “cloud of probabilities.”
The Trump administration is stuck in a word cloud of probabilities of his own making. The war is over. The war is on. The war isn’t a war. We have a deal, but we don’t have a deal, but we’re about to have a deal. We destroyed Iran’s military. No, we left it intact. We want regime change. No we don’t. We already accomplished it. We “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program a year ago. We had to go to war in February to prevent nuclear war. The Strait of Hormuz is open, closed, or something in-between. No deal without “unconditional surrender.” Let’s make a deal!
This everything-all-at-once vibe can be disorienting, particularly since most Americans didn’t have a war with Iran on their bingo cards until the shooting had already started. President Trump didn’t prepare the country or consult with Congress beforehand because he thought it would all be a smashing success in a matter of weeks.
The miscalculation that started it all: killing Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and much of Iran’s senior leadership, on the first day of the war. To “the great proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand,” Trump announced on Feb. 28. “When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.”
I support regime change in Iran and shed no tears for Khamenei or his goons. But when you start a war by killing the regime’s top leaders, it’s not unreasonable for the remaining ones to conclude that you really intend regime change.
Khamenei was a murderous fanatic, but he was a fairly cautious one. He liked to threaten closing the Strait of Hormuz or attacking our regional allies, but he was reluctant to actually do it, fearing it would invite a regime change war. The mullahs and IRGC goons believed, not unreasonably, that if they lost their grip on power, they’d be lynched by the Iranian people they’ve brutalized for decades.
By starting with a regime change war, Trump removed any reason for the regime not to go for broke. When you have nothing to lose — particularly when you are a millenarian religious fanatic — a Persian Alamo strategy makes a lot of sense.
So Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz and attacked its neighbors.
But it turns out this wasn’t the Alamo. In the contest of wills, Trump blinked. The Iranian regime’s tolerance for punishment proved — so far — to be greater than Trump’s and that of our gulf allies. Militarily we could finish the job, but that would require ground troops and much greater economic turmoil. In a conflict Trump launched unilaterally without the prior support of Congress, NATO or the American people, Trump doesn’t have the political capital for that.
But that’s only half the problem. Trump wants the war over, but he doesn’t want to pay — militarily, economically, politically — what that would cost. So he wants to make a deal that ends it. But there is no deal available that wouldn’t come at an equally undesirable cost. Any deal that looks like what President Obama struck with the Iranians would be too embarrassing to bear. But the Iranians are convinced that they can get just such a deal, and they’re willing to drag things out as long as it takes.
The result: Trump’s in a box of his own making. He thinks he can talk his way out by simply asserting a reality that doesn’t exist. When the financial markets get nervous, he announces a breakthrough that is, at best, a possibility. When the Iranians agree to a deal that looks similar to one Obama might negotiate, Trump goes back to his threats.
It can’t go on forever. But I’m sure it’ll last until long after this column is forgotten.
Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.