Trump tours Texas flood damage as the disaster tests his pledge to do away with FEMA

KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday toured the devastation from catastrophic flooding in Texas and lauded local officials amid mounting criticism that they failed to warn residents fast enough that a deadly wall of water was coming their way.

“The search for the missing continues. The people that are doing it are unbelievable,” Trump told first responders and other state and local officials gathered at an emergency operations center in an expo hall in Kerrville.

“You couldn’t get better people, and they’re doing the job like I don’t think anybody else could, frankly,” Trump said.

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The president said his administration “is doing everything it can to help Texas” and insisted that “we’ve got some good people” running the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Since the July 4 disaster, which has killed at least 120 people and left more than 170 missing, the president has been conspicuously silent on his past, repeated promises to do away with FEMA. Instead, he’s focused on the once-in-a-lifetime nature of what occurred and the human tragedy. He has praised Texas and local officials while de-emphasizing the administration’s government-slashing crusade that’s been popular with Trump’s core supporters.

Trump specifically mentioned victims from Camp Mystic, the century-old all-girls Christian summer camp in Texas Hill Country where at least 27 people were killed. The president called it a “legendary place.”

“They were there because they loved God. And, as we grieve this unthinkable tragedy, we take comfort in the knowledge that God has welcomed those little beautiful girls into his comforting arms in heaven,” said Trump who described the floodwaters as “like a giant, giant wave in the Pacific Ocean that the best surfers in the world would be afraid to surf.”

While concerns have swirled about the future of FEMA at the federal level, local officials have faced questions about how well they were prepared and how quickly they acted. Asked about such concerns, Trump called a reporter posing the question “evil” and said he thought “everyone did an incredible job under the circumstances.”

“I admire you, and I consider you heroes,” Trump said of the state and local officials around him.

Before leaving the White House, Trump approved Texas’ request to extend the major disaster declaration beyond Kerr County to eight additional counties, making them eligible for direct financial assistance to recover and rebuild.

Trump’s shift in focus underscores how tragedy can complicate political calculations, even though he has made slashing the federal workforce and dramatically shrinking the size of government centerpieces of his administration’s opening months.

Air Force One landed in San Antonio with Trump deplaning in a suit and first lady Melania Trump wearing more casual clothing. Both wore ball caps against the heat. The first couple saw the aftermath from the air, then met privately with first responders and relatives of flood victims.

Roads in the center of Kerrville were shut down for Trump’s visit, and people lined the streets, some wearing Trump hats and T-shirts and waving American flags. Green ribbons recognizing the lives lost at Camp Mystic were tied around trees, poles and along bridges, and marquees featured slogans such as “Hill Country Strong” and “Thank you first responders.”

Trump won Kerr County with 77% of the vote last year.

Harris Currie, a rancher from Utopia, Texas, near Kerrville, said the flood devastation can be fully understood only by seeing it first-hand.

“Pictures do not do it justice,” Currie said.

Asked what officials on the ground needed most urgently from federal sources, Kerr County Commissioner Jeff Holt, who also is a volunteer firefighter, stressed the need for repairs to nonworking phone towers and “maybe a little better early warning system.” Trump himself has suggested that a warning system should be established, though he has not provided details on how that might happen.

During his first weekend back in the White House in January, Trump visited North Carolina to scope out damage from Hurricane Helene. He also toured the aftermath of devastating wildfires in Los Angeles. The president used both trips to sharply criticize the administration of his predecessor, President Joe Biden and officials from deep-blue California.

That was in stark contrast to Texas, America’s largest red state, where Trump thanked Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and scores of other state officials.

Before the Texas flood, the president pledged — and as recently as last month — to begin “phasing out” FEMA and bring disaster response management “down to the state level.” He’s not talking about that now, though. And pressed this week on whether the White House will continue to work to shutter FEMA, press secretary Karoline Leavitt would not 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.”

Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, similarly dodged questions Friday about FEMA’s future, instead noting that the agency has billions of dollars in reserves “to continue to pay for necessary expenses” and that the president has promised Texas, “Anything it needs, it will get.”

“We also want FEMA to be reformed,” Vought added. “The president is going to continue to be asking tough questions of all of us agencies, no different than any other opportunity to have better government.”

Darrin Potter, a Kerr County resident for 25 years who saw ankle-deep flooding in his home and knew people who were killed, said earlier this week, “As far as early warnings, I’m sure they can improve on that.”

But he said all the talk about evacuating missed 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.

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Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim in Washington and Nadia Lathan in Ingram, Texas, contributed to this report.

Sean Murphy And Will Weissert, The Associated Press