Experts point instead to Trump's massive cuts.
The tragic toll
As search operations continue after the devastating floods that struck Texas on July 4, and the tragic death toll now exceeds 100, Trump already looks set to name his favorite culprit for the disaster: Joe Biden.
Coordination
Numerous questions have been raised about the distribution of emergency warnings and the coordination of meteorologists at forecasting centers regarding the risk of flash flooding in the affected region, just hours before the tragedy.
Biden
Meanwhile, Trump has chosen to blame what he calls "a Biden setup," according to CNN, while he argued that DOGE's recent budget cuts, particularly to the National Weather Service, had nothing to do with emergency warnings or their effectiveness, he was quick to add: "That was not our setup."
A contributing factor
Trump insisted: "That was really the Biden setup." Yet, Rick Spinrad, former director of NOAA, believes, on the contrary, that recent budget cuts under the Trump administration may have been a contributing factor in the response linked to flood warnings.
Budget cuts
Questioned on the subject by CNN, the former NOAA director asserted that, in his opinion, the budget cuts imposed by DOGE had indeed played a role: "I am convinced that the staff cuts that we saw were a contributing factor to the inability of the emergency managers to respond," he said.
A position that was vacant
When an emergency message is transmitted, there's no guarantee that it will reach its destination without follow-up, explained Spinrad. In this case, that responsibility fell to the meteorologist in charge of alert coordination, a position that was vacant at the time of the events, as he had accepted the government's offer of retirement a few months earlier.
A survey
U.S. Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has called for an investigation into the National Weather Service's response to the Texas floods.