'Exactly What We Would Expect': Climate Scientists Weigh in on Deadly Texas Flooding
"It's not a question of whether climate change played a role—it's only a question of how much," said one expert.
Search and rescue workers dig through debris looking for any survivors or remains of people swept up in the flash flooding on July 6, 2025 in Hunt, Texas.
(Photo: Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)
Brett Wilkins
Jul 06, 2025
"It's not a question of whether climate change played a role—it's only a question of how much," said one expert.
Search and rescue workers dig through debris looking for any survivors or remains of people swept up in the flash flooding on July 6, 2025 in Hunt, Texas.
(Photo: Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)
Brett Wilkins
Jul 06, 2025
COMMON DREAMS
As the death toll from catastrophic flooding in Texas continued to rise, climate scientists this weekend underscored the link between more frequent and severe extreme weather events and the worsening climate emergency caused primarily by humans burning fossil fuels.
Officials said Sunday that at least 69 people died in the floods, 59 of them in Kerr County. Of the 27 missing girls from Camp Mystic—some of whom were sleeping just 225 feet from the Guadalupe River when its waters surged during flash flooding Friday—11 are still missing.
While some local officials blamed what they said were faulty forecasts from the National Weather Service—which has been hit hard by staffing cuts ordered by the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency in line with Project 2025—meteorologists and climate scientists including Daniel Swain of the University of California, Los Angeles have refuted such allegations, citing multiple NWS warnings of potentially deadly flooding.
However, some experts asserted that vacancies at key NWS posts raise questions about forecasters' ability to coordinate emergency response with local officials.
Climate scientists do concur that human-caused global heating is causing stronger and more frequent extreme weather events including flooding.
"This kind of record-shattering rain (caused by slow-moving torrential thunderstorms) event is *precisely* that which is increasing the fastest in a warming climate," Swain wrote in a statement. "So it's not a question of whether climate change played a role—it's only a question of how much."
As Jeff Masters and Bob Henson wrote Saturday for Yale Climate Connections:
Many studies have confirmed that human-caused climate change is making the heaviest short-term rainfall events more intense, largely by warming the world's oceans and thus sending more water vapor into the atmosphere that can fuel heavy rain events. Sea surface temperatures this week have been as much as 1°F below the 1981-2010 average for early July in the western Gulf [of Mexico] and Caribbean, but up to 1°F above average in the central Gulf. Long-term human-caused warming made the latter up to 10 times more likely, according to the Climate Shift Index from Climate Central.
"The tragic events in Texas are exactly what we would expect in our hotter, climate-changed, world," Bill McGuire, professor emeritus of geophysics and climate hazards at University College London, said Saturday. "There has been an explosion in extreme weather in recent years, including more devastating flash floods caused by slow-moving, wetter, storms, that dump exceptional amounts of rain over small areas across a short time."
Instead of taking action to combat the planetary emergency, the Trump administration is ramping up fossil fuel production while waging war on clean energy and climate initiatives. The so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law by Trump on Friday slashes the tax credits for electric vehicles and other renewable technologies including wind and solar energy that were a cornerstone of the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act.
As the death toll from catastrophic flooding in Texas continued to rise, climate scientists this weekend underscored the link between more frequent and severe extreme weather events and the worsening climate emergency caused primarily by humans burning fossil fuels.
Officials said Sunday that at least 69 people died in the floods, 59 of them in Kerr County. Of the 27 missing girls from Camp Mystic—some of whom were sleeping just 225 feet from the Guadalupe River when its waters surged during flash flooding Friday—11 are still missing.
While some local officials blamed what they said were faulty forecasts from the National Weather Service—which has been hit hard by staffing cuts ordered by the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency in line with Project 2025—meteorologists and climate scientists including Daniel Swain of the University of California, Los Angeles have refuted such allegations, citing multiple NWS warnings of potentially deadly flooding.
However, some experts asserted that vacancies at key NWS posts raise questions about forecasters' ability to coordinate emergency response with local officials.
Climate scientists do concur that human-caused global heating is causing stronger and more frequent extreme weather events including flooding.
"This kind of record-shattering rain (caused by slow-moving torrential thunderstorms) event is *precisely* that which is increasing the fastest in a warming climate," Swain wrote in a statement. "So it's not a question of whether climate change played a role—it's only a question of how much."
As Jeff Masters and Bob Henson wrote Saturday for Yale Climate Connections:
Many studies have confirmed that human-caused climate change is making the heaviest short-term rainfall events more intense, largely by warming the world's oceans and thus sending more water vapor into the atmosphere that can fuel heavy rain events. Sea surface temperatures this week have been as much as 1°F below the 1981-2010 average for early July in the western Gulf [of Mexico] and Caribbean, but up to 1°F above average in the central Gulf. Long-term human-caused warming made the latter up to 10 times more likely, according to the Climate Shift Index from Climate Central.
"The tragic events in Texas are exactly what we would expect in our hotter, climate-changed, world," Bill McGuire, professor emeritus of geophysics and climate hazards at University College London, said Saturday. "There has been an explosion in extreme weather in recent years, including more devastating flash floods caused by slow-moving, wetter, storms, that dump exceptional amounts of rain over small areas across a short time."
Instead of taking action to combat the planetary emergency, the Trump administration is ramping up fossil fuel production while waging war on clean energy and climate initiatives. The so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law by Trump on Friday slashes the tax credits for electric vehicles and other renewable technologies including wind and solar energy that were a cornerstone of the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act.
As Flood Deaths Rise, Texas Officials Blast Faulty Forecast by DOGE-Gutted National Weather Service
"Experts warned for months that drastic and sudden cuts at the National Weather Service by Trump could impair their forecasting ability and endanger lives during the storm season," said one critic.
A photo shows overturned vehicles and broken trees after flooding caused by a flash flood at the Guadalupe River in Kerrville, Texas, on July 5, 2025.
(Photo: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images)
Brett Wilkins
Jul 05, 2025
COMMON DREAMS
As catastrophic flooding left scores of people dead and missing in Texas Hill Country and President Donald Trump celebrated signing legislation that will eviscerate every aspect of federal efforts to address the climate emergency, officials in the Lone Star State blasted the National Weather Service—one of many agencies gutted by the Department of Government Efficiency—for issuing what they said were faulty forecasts that some observers blamed for the flood's high death toll.
The Associated Press reported Saturday that flooding caused by a powerful storm killed at least 27 people, with dozens more—including as many as 25 girls from a summer camp along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County—missing after fast-moving floodwaters rose 26 feet (8 meters) in less than an hour before dawn on Friday, sweeping away people and pets along with homes, vehicles, farm and wild animals, and property.
"Everybody got the forecast from the National Weather Service... It did not predict the amount of rain that we saw."
"The camp was completely destroyed," Elinor Lester, 13, one of hundreds of campers at Camp Mystic, told the AP. "A helicopter landed and started taking people away. It was really scary."
Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said during a press conference in Kerrville late Friday that 24 people were confirmed dead, including children. Other officials said that 240 people had been rescued.
Although the National Weather Service on Thursday issued a broad flood watch for the area, Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd—noting that the NWS predicted 3-6 inches of rain for the Concho Valley and 4-8 inches for the Hill Country—told reporters during a press conference earlier Friday that "the amount of rain that fell in this specific location was never in any of those forecasts."
"Listen, everybody got the forecast from the National Weather Service," Kidd reiterated. "You all got it; you're all in media. You got that forecast. It did not predict the amount of rain that we saw."
Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice also said during the press conference that the storm "dumped more rain than what was forecasted" into two forks of the Guadalupe River.
Kerr County judge Rob Kelly told CBS News: "We had no reason to believe that this was gonna be anything like what's happened here. None whatsoever."
Since January, the NWS—a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—has reduced its workforce by nearly 600 people as a direct result of staffing cuts ordered by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, as part of Trump's mission to eviscerate numerous federal agencies.
This policy is in line with Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation-led blueprint for a far-right overhaul of the federal government that calls for "dismantling" NOAA. Trump has also called for the elimination of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, arguing that states should shoulder most of the burden of extreme weather preparation and response. Shutting down FEMA would require an act of Congress.
Many of the fired NWS staffers were specialized climate scientists and weather forecasters. At the time of the firings, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, was among those who warned of the cuts' deadly consequences.
"People nationwide depend on NOAA for free, accurate forecasts, severe weather alerts, and emergency information," Huffman said. "Purging the government of scientists, experts, and career civil servants and slashing fundamental programs will cost lives."
Writing for the Texas Observer, Henry D. Jacoby—co-director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change—warned that "crucial data gathering systems are at risk."
"Federal ability to warn the public is being degraded," he added, "and it is a public service no state can replace."
On Friday, Trump put presidential pen to congressional Republicans' so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a $4 trillion tax and spending package that effectively erases the landmark climate and clean energy provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act signed by then-President Joe Biden in 2022.
As Inside Climate News noted of the new law:
It stomps out incentives for purchasing electric vehicles and efficient appliances. It phases out tax credits for wind and solar energy. It opens up federal land and water for oil and gas drilling and increases its profitability, while creating new federal support for coal. It ends the historic investment in poor and minority communities that bear a disproportionate pollution burden—money that the Trump administration was already refusing to spend. It wipes out any spending on greening the federal government.
Furthermore, as MeidasNews editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski noted Saturday, "rural areas hit hardest by catastrophic storms are the same areas now in danger of losing their hospitals after Trump's Medicaid cuts just passed" as part of the budget reconciliation package.
At least one congressional Republican is ready to take action in the face of increasing extreme weather events. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)—who once attributed California wildfires to Jewish-controlled space lasers—announced Saturday that she is "introducing a bill that prohibits the injection, release, or dispersion of chemicals or substances into the atmosphere for the express purpose of altering weather, temperature, climate, or sunlight intensity."
"It will be a felony offense," she explained. "We must end the dangerous and deadly practice of weather modification and geoengineering."
"Experts warned for months that drastic and sudden cuts at the National Weather Service by Trump could impair their forecasting ability and endanger lives during the storm season," said one critic.
A photo shows overturned vehicles and broken trees after flooding caused by a flash flood at the Guadalupe River in Kerrville, Texas, on July 5, 2025.
(Photo: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images)
Brett Wilkins
Jul 05, 2025
COMMON DREAMS
As catastrophic flooding left scores of people dead and missing in Texas Hill Country and President Donald Trump celebrated signing legislation that will eviscerate every aspect of federal efforts to address the climate emergency, officials in the Lone Star State blasted the National Weather Service—one of many agencies gutted by the Department of Government Efficiency—for issuing what they said were faulty forecasts that some observers blamed for the flood's high death toll.
The Associated Press reported Saturday that flooding caused by a powerful storm killed at least 27 people, with dozens more—including as many as 25 girls from a summer camp along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County—missing after fast-moving floodwaters rose 26 feet (8 meters) in less than an hour before dawn on Friday, sweeping away people and pets along with homes, vehicles, farm and wild animals, and property.
"Everybody got the forecast from the National Weather Service... It did not predict the amount of rain that we saw."
"The camp was completely destroyed," Elinor Lester, 13, one of hundreds of campers at Camp Mystic, told the AP. "A helicopter landed and started taking people away. It was really scary."
Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said during a press conference in Kerrville late Friday that 24 people were confirmed dead, including children. Other officials said that 240 people had been rescued.
Although the National Weather Service on Thursday issued a broad flood watch for the area, Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd—noting that the NWS predicted 3-6 inches of rain for the Concho Valley and 4-8 inches for the Hill Country—told reporters during a press conference earlier Friday that "the amount of rain that fell in this specific location was never in any of those forecasts."
"Listen, everybody got the forecast from the National Weather Service," Kidd reiterated. "You all got it; you're all in media. You got that forecast. It did not predict the amount of rain that we saw."
Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice also said during the press conference that the storm "dumped more rain than what was forecasted" into two forks of the Guadalupe River.
Kerr County judge Rob Kelly told CBS News: "We had no reason to believe that this was gonna be anything like what's happened here. None whatsoever."
Since January, the NWS—a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—has reduced its workforce by nearly 600 people as a direct result of staffing cuts ordered by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, as part of Trump's mission to eviscerate numerous federal agencies.
This policy is in line with Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation-led blueprint for a far-right overhaul of the federal government that calls for "dismantling" NOAA. Trump has also called for the elimination of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, arguing that states should shoulder most of the burden of extreme weather preparation and response. Shutting down FEMA would require an act of Congress.
Many of the fired NWS staffers were specialized climate scientists and weather forecasters. At the time of the firings, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, was among those who warned of the cuts' deadly consequences.
"People nationwide depend on NOAA for free, accurate forecasts, severe weather alerts, and emergency information," Huffman said. "Purging the government of scientists, experts, and career civil servants and slashing fundamental programs will cost lives."
Writing for the Texas Observer, Henry D. Jacoby—co-director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change—warned that "crucial data gathering systems are at risk."
"Federal ability to warn the public is being degraded," he added, "and it is a public service no state can replace."
On Friday, Trump put presidential pen to congressional Republicans' so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a $4 trillion tax and spending package that effectively erases the landmark climate and clean energy provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act signed by then-President Joe Biden in 2022.
As Inside Climate News noted of the new law:
It stomps out incentives for purchasing electric vehicles and efficient appliances. It phases out tax credits for wind and solar energy. It opens up federal land and water for oil and gas drilling and increases its profitability, while creating new federal support for coal. It ends the historic investment in poor and minority communities that bear a disproportionate pollution burden—money that the Trump administration was already refusing to spend. It wipes out any spending on greening the federal government.
Furthermore, as MeidasNews editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski noted Saturday, "rural areas hit hardest by catastrophic storms are the same areas now in danger of losing their hospitals after Trump's Medicaid cuts just passed" as part of the budget reconciliation package.
At least one congressional Republican is ready to take action in the face of increasing extreme weather events. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)—who once attributed California wildfires to Jewish-controlled space lasers—announced Saturday that she is "introducing a bill that prohibits the injection, release, or dispersion of chemicals or substances into the atmosphere for the express purpose of altering weather, temperature, climate, or sunlight intensity."
"It will be a felony offense," she explained. "We must end the dangerous and deadly practice of weather modification and geoengineering."
'Not the day': GOP senator warns Dems complaining about cuts to weather agencies
David Edwards
July 6, 2025
July 6, 2025
RAW STORY
Fox News/screen grab
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) lashed out at Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) after he noted that cuts to agencies like the National Weather Service could leave communities unprepared for catastrophic events.
In a Sunday morning interview, Castro reflected on recent flooding in Texas that left more than 70 people dead.
"When you have flash flooding, you know there's a risk that you won't have the personnel to make that, do that analysis, do the predictions, and in the best way, and it could lead to tragedy," the Democratic lawmaker told CNN. "So I don't want to sit here and say conclusively that that was the case, but I do think that it should be investigated, and having, you know, not having enough personnel is never helpful."
Blackburn responded to Castro in a Sunday afternoon appearance on Fox News.
"Those are issues that will be addressed by DHS and NOAA and other components as they move forward," Blackburn insisted. "Now is not the day for that type of conversation."
"I would encourage the congressman to be wrapping his arms and his heart and his prayers around these families and to stand with them at this point," she added.
Fox News/screen grab
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) lashed out at Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) after he noted that cuts to agencies like the National Weather Service could leave communities unprepared for catastrophic events.
In a Sunday morning interview, Castro reflected on recent flooding in Texas that left more than 70 people dead.
"When you have flash flooding, you know there's a risk that you won't have the personnel to make that, do that analysis, do the predictions, and in the best way, and it could lead to tragedy," the Democratic lawmaker told CNN. "So I don't want to sit here and say conclusively that that was the case, but I do think that it should be investigated, and having, you know, not having enough personnel is never helpful."
Blackburn responded to Castro in a Sunday afternoon appearance on Fox News.
"Those are issues that will be addressed by DHS and NOAA and other components as they move forward," Blackburn insisted. "Now is not the day for that type of conversation."
"I would encourage the congressman to be wrapping his arms and his heart and his prayers around these families and to stand with them at this point," she added.
Watch the video below from Fox News or at the link.
Chris Christie claims 'people don't feel climate change' after floods hit Texas
David Edwards
July 6, 2025
RAW ST0RY
ABC/screen grab
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) argued that "people don't feel" climate change after historic flooding left more than 50 people dead in Texas.
During a Sunday panel discussion on ABC, Democratic strategist Donna Brazile told Christie that Republicans only made short-term gains by killing climate change initiatives with President Donald Trump's recent spending bill.
"If you define winning by short-changing the American people in terms of pollution and climate change, it's not winning in the long term," she explained.
"The one place where I'll disagree with Donna is, look, on the energy front, the fact of the matter is that people don't feel, despite some other indications, the climate change issue in the way that Democrats would like them to," Christie replied. "Now, Donna, I'm not saying there's not evidence of it, but I'm saying they don't feel it."
"You don't feel it?" Brazile gasped. "I feel it every day. I feel it, whether I'm walking in the streets or I feel it when I watch the news. You feel it."
"And all these extreme weather events all across America," she added. "We're going to see more Katrinas as you've seen over the last 10 years. You were a governor during Sandy. You know that these weather events are getting worse."
Christie, however, was not persuaded.
"I'll never believe that Sandy was created by climate change," he snapped.
Watch the video below from ABC or at the link.
David Edwards
July 6, 2025
RAW ST0RY
ABC/screen grab
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) argued that "people don't feel" climate change after historic flooding left more than 50 people dead in Texas.
During a Sunday panel discussion on ABC, Democratic strategist Donna Brazile told Christie that Republicans only made short-term gains by killing climate change initiatives with President Donald Trump's recent spending bill.
"If you define winning by short-changing the American people in terms of pollution and climate change, it's not winning in the long term," she explained.
"The one place where I'll disagree with Donna is, look, on the energy front, the fact of the matter is that people don't feel, despite some other indications, the climate change issue in the way that Democrats would like them to," Christie replied. "Now, Donna, I'm not saying there's not evidence of it, but I'm saying they don't feel it."
"You don't feel it?" Brazile gasped. "I feel it every day. I feel it, whether I'm walking in the streets or I feel it when I watch the news. You feel it."
"And all these extreme weather events all across America," she added. "We're going to see more Katrinas as you've seen over the last 10 years. You were a governor during Sandy. You know that these weather events are getting worse."
Christie, however, was not persuaded.
"I'll never believe that Sandy was created by climate change," he snapped.
Watch the video below from ABC or at the link.
'Trash!' Right-wingers flip after Rosie O'Donnell blames Trump for Texas deaths
David Edwards
July 6, 2025
RAW STORY
TikTok/screen grab
Rosie O'Donnell faced backlash from conservatives after she blamed President Donald Trump for Texas flood deaths.
In a Sunday post on TikTok, O'Donnell blasted Trump for cutting early warning systems before the floods killed over 60 people.
"When the president guts all of the early warning systems and the weather forecast abilities of the government, these are the results that we're going to start to see on a daily basis because he's put this country in so much danger by his horrible, horrible decisions and this ridiculously immoral bill that he just signed into law," O'Donnell explained.
"As Republicans cheered, as Republicans cheered, people will die as a result, and they've started already," she said. "Shame on every GOP sycophant who's listening and following the disastrous decisions of this mentally incapacitated POTUS."
"Libs of TikTok" accused O'Donnell of Trump Derangement Syndrome or "TDS."
"Rosie is a has-been who has no self value or worth and spews hateful accusations to try and stay relevant," @TexasTime2 wrote on X.
"WHAT A LOSER!" an account called "MAGA Enthusiast" exclaimed.
"Rosie O'Donnell is TRASH!" right-wing commenter Gunther Eagleman said.
Watch the video below or click here.
David Edwards
July 6, 2025
RAW STORY
TikTok/screen grab
Rosie O'Donnell faced backlash from conservatives after she blamed President Donald Trump for Texas flood deaths.
In a Sunday post on TikTok, O'Donnell blasted Trump for cutting early warning systems before the floods killed over 60 people.
"When the president guts all of the early warning systems and the weather forecast abilities of the government, these are the results that we're going to start to see on a daily basis because he's put this country in so much danger by his horrible, horrible decisions and this ridiculously immoral bill that he just signed into law," O'Donnell explained.
"As Republicans cheered, as Republicans cheered, people will die as a result, and they've started already," she said. "Shame on every GOP sycophant who's listening and following the disastrous decisions of this mentally incapacitated POTUS."
"Libs of TikTok" accused O'Donnell of Trump Derangement Syndrome or "TDS."
"Rosie is a has-been who has no self value or worth and spews hateful accusations to try and stay relevant," @TexasTime2 wrote on X.
"WHAT A LOSER!" an account called "MAGA Enthusiast" exclaimed.
"Rosie O'Donnell is TRASH!" right-wing commenter Gunther Eagleman said.
Watch the video below or click here.
'Call a thing what it is’: Trump biographer says president caused Texas deaths
Ailia Zehra,
Ailia Zehra,
Alternet
July 6, 2025
Donald Trump (Reuters)
In a scathing social media post, Seth Abramson, biographer of President Donald Trump, directly blamed Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk for the deaths of more than 50 Texans in recent catastrophic flooding — arguing their politically driven decisions led to avoidable tragedy.
“I have no difficulty saying that Trump and Musk caused some of the 50+ flood deaths in Texas,” Abramson wrote in a widely shared thread on the social platform X.
“And here's why: these two men with no expertise in disaster preparedness were told not to cut the positions they cut, and were told people would die if they did. And then people died," he said.
Abramson’s remarks come amid growing scrutiny over public service cuts made in Republican-led states, where disaster readiness programs have been downsized or gutted.
In Texas, where flash floods have left at least 50 people dead, analysts and former emergency managers have raised concerns that early warning systems, regional FEMA coordination, and infrastructure resilience have been compromised due to staffing and budget reductions.
Abramson urged Democratic leaders to take a more forceful stance over the tragedy. “Democrats are never going to start winning elections again until they're willing to call a thing just what it is,” he wrote. “Texas Democrats should be clear and persistent in saying that public service cuts overseen by non-experts desperate for billionaire tax cuts killed people.”
He preemptively addressed Republican rebuttals accusing Democrats of politicizing tragedy. “And if Republicans respond by saying that Democrats are politicizing these deaths,” Abramson added, “the Democrats should respond: THAT'S BECAUSE THE DEATHS ARE POLITICAL. POLITICIANS CAUSED THEM.”
Abramson, who has written extensively on Trump’s business and political life, framed the Texas disaster as a warning of worse to come.
“A key reason we need to start having this conversation now—and why cowardly Democratic politicians need to get over their aversion to having this conversation—is because the number of dead attributable to Trump and Musk this year will be in the thousands or tens of thousands," he wrote in the X post.
The Texas floods, which resulted from unprecedented rainfall and infrastructure failures across several counties, are among the deadliest in recent state history. Emergency responders have said many deaths occurred in areas where early warning systems failed or where evacuation routes were unmaintained.
July 6, 2025
Donald Trump (Reuters)
In a scathing social media post, Seth Abramson, biographer of President Donald Trump, directly blamed Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk for the deaths of more than 50 Texans in recent catastrophic flooding — arguing their politically driven decisions led to avoidable tragedy.
“I have no difficulty saying that Trump and Musk caused some of the 50+ flood deaths in Texas,” Abramson wrote in a widely shared thread on the social platform X.
“And here's why: these two men with no expertise in disaster preparedness were told not to cut the positions they cut, and were told people would die if they did. And then people died," he said.
Abramson’s remarks come amid growing scrutiny over public service cuts made in Republican-led states, where disaster readiness programs have been downsized or gutted.
In Texas, where flash floods have left at least 50 people dead, analysts and former emergency managers have raised concerns that early warning systems, regional FEMA coordination, and infrastructure resilience have been compromised due to staffing and budget reductions.
Abramson urged Democratic leaders to take a more forceful stance over the tragedy. “Democrats are never going to start winning elections again until they're willing to call a thing just what it is,” he wrote. “Texas Democrats should be clear and persistent in saying that public service cuts overseen by non-experts desperate for billionaire tax cuts killed people.”
He preemptively addressed Republican rebuttals accusing Democrats of politicizing tragedy. “And if Republicans respond by saying that Democrats are politicizing these deaths,” Abramson added, “the Democrats should respond: THAT'S BECAUSE THE DEATHS ARE POLITICAL. POLITICIANS CAUSED THEM.”
Abramson, who has written extensively on Trump’s business and political life, framed the Texas disaster as a warning of worse to come.
“A key reason we need to start having this conversation now—and why cowardly Democratic politicians need to get over their aversion to having this conversation—is because the number of dead attributable to Trump and Musk this year will be in the thousands or tens of thousands," he wrote in the X post.
The Texas floods, which resulted from unprecedented rainfall and infrastructure failures across several counties, are among the deadliest in recent state history. Emergency responders have said many deaths occurred in areas where early warning systems failed or where evacuation routes were unmaintained.
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