The devastating news from Texas keeps worsening as the number of deaths due to a flash flood has climbed to 51, with at least 15 of them being children. There are still over twenty girls from a local summer camp missing, and the search and rescue operations are persisting through the night. Heartbreakingly, as time passes, the likelihood of discovering more survivors decreases, and the circumstances may become even more sorrowful in the days to come.
As a parent to young children, I can hardly imagine the ordeal the affected families are enduring. My thoughts and prayers are with them, and I continue to hope that more individuals will be found alive. This is undoubtedly not a moment to make inconsiderate political remarks about the tragedy, and considering the unpredictable nature of flash floods, I believe there will never be an appropriate time for that.
Regrettably, several Democrats have chosen to forgo compassion in favor of personal partisan advancement. Ron Filipowski, who edits the progressive publication Meidas Touch, shared this on Saturday.
The people in Texas voted for government services controlled by Donald Trump and Greg Abbott. That is exactly what they getting.
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) July 5, 2025
It takes a truly rotten soul to handwave away the deaths of children as the deserved outcome of daring to vote for Donald Trump and Greg Abbott. Further, as I wrote in a prior piece, there is no evidence that budget cuts at the National Weather Service (NWS) played a role in the forecasting of this event. There was a 12-hour early flood watch in effect, and a 3-hour early flash flood warning was issued.
Yet, the idea that the NWS was “gutted” and led to this outcome is becoming a predominant theme among Democrats.
Trump takes zero responsibility for his cuts to the National Weather Service pic.twitter.com/RGZbwClVAq
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) July 5, 2025
Trump & Musk gutted the National Weather Service. The result was predictable: A bad forecast leading to the death of children in a horrific flood. https://t.co/OCqTwRSsGi
— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) July 5, 2025
It’s pretty clear that Trump’s cuts to @NOAA contributed to dozens of deaths in Texas from a under reported on tropical storm. https://t.co/5ReAVmXF22
— Rachel Bitecofer 🗽🦆 (@RachelBitecofer) July 5, 2025
To be clear, the “cuts” being cited are not only minimal and target bloat, not effective services, but they do not go into effect until October. As for any prior staff cuts (NOAA was in the process of cutting 10 percent of its staff), there is likewise no evidence that those hampered the forecasting of this event. Yet, even a California state senator is repeating the lie because he believes it helps him politically. The NWS could have a trillion-dollar budget, and it would have put out the same forecast.
To the extent that the of rain was not predicted, it is not possible to know exactly how much will fall when a system stalls out over a specific area, which is what happened here. The same thing occurred when Hurricane Harvey sat on top of Houston for several days in 2017. The government is not magic. It can not fix every situation. It can not foretell every tragedy so as to prevent it. Certainly, it can’t control the weather. To pretend it can for political gain, spitting on the deaths of children in the process, is evil.
