KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday toured the devastation from catastrophic flooding in Texas and lauded state and native officers, even amid mounting criticism that they might have didn’t warn residents shortly sufficient {that a} lethal wall of water was coming their method.
Trump has repeatedly promised to cast off the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a part of his bigger pledges to dramatically shrink the size of government, and he’s keen on decrying officers in Democrat-run states hit by previous pure disasters and tragedy.
However the president struck a much more somber and sympathetic tone whereas visiting America’s most populous Republican state — highlighting the heartbreak of what occurred whereas effusively praising elected officers and first responders alike.
“The seek for the lacking continues. The folks which are doing it are unbelievable,” Trump, seated with officers round a desk with emblazoned with a black-and-white “Texas Robust” banner, stated at a makeshift emergency operations middle inside an expo corridor in Kerrville.
He later added, “You couldn’t get higher folks, they usually’re doing the job like I don’t assume anyone else might, frankly.”
Because the July 4 disaster, which killed at the least 129 folks and left more than 170 missing, the president has been conspicuously silent on his previous guarantees to shutter FEMA and return catastrophe response to the states. As an alternative, he’s centered on the once-in-a-lifetime nature of what occurred in central Texas’ Hill Nation and its human toll.
“We simply visited with unbelievable households. They’ve been devastated,” the president stated of a closed-door assembly he and first girl Melania Trump had with the kin of a few of these killed or lacking.
Trump’s shift in focus underscores how tragedy can complicate political calculations, regardless that he has made slashing the federal workforce a centerpiece of his administration’s opening months. He spent lots of time Friday discussing the victims from Camp Mystic, the century-old all-girls Christian summer camp the place at the least 27 folks have been killed.
“They have been there as a result of they beloved God. And, as we grieve this unthinkable tragedy, we take consolation within the information that God has welcomed these little stunning ladies into his comforting arms in heaven,” Trump stated.
The primary girl described assembly “stunning younger women” from the realm who she stated gave her a “particular bracelet from the camp in honor of all of the little ladies that misplaced their lives.” She promised to return to help the camp sooner or later.
Trump permitted Texas’ request to increase the main catastrophe declaration past Kerr County to eight further counties, making them eligible for direct monetary help to get better and rebuild.
“All throughout the nation People’ hearts are shattered,” he stated. “I needed to be right here as president.”
Regardless of saying that he didn’t need to speak politics, Trump couldn’t assist himself. Through the roundtable, he bragged briefly about his administration lowering the price of eggs across the nation and, in a response to a query about Democratic criticisms of the flood response, stated, “All they need to do is criticize.”
“They’re getting simply completely clobbered ’trigger everybody sees what an unbelievable job the governor did,” Trump stated of Democrats. “Everyone on this room, everyone at this desk specifically.”
In reward of FEMA
He additionally nonetheless insisted “we’ve acquired some good folks” operating FEMA. That’s nonetheless a far cry from his name mere weeks in the past to start “phasing out” FEMA.
On the White Home, Russell Vought, director of the Workplace of Administration and Funds, equally dodged questions Friday about FEMA’s future. He stated that the company has billions of {dollars} in reserves “to proceed to pay for needed bills.”
“We additionally need FEMA to be reformed,” Vought stated. “The president goes to proceed to be asking powerful questions of all of us companies, no totally different than another alternative to have higher authorities.”
On the bottom in devastated communities, in the meantime, some state and native officers have faced questions about how nicely they have been ready and the way shortly they acted — together with if warning methods may need given extra folks time to evacuate.
Requested about such issues throughout his look on the operations middle in Kerrville, Trump known as a reporter “evil” and stated he thought “everybody did an unbelievable job beneath the circumstances.”
“I like you, and I think about you heroes,” Trump stated of the officers round him.
He additionally praised a protracted record of Texas Republicans and had particularly variety phrases for Rep. Chip Roy, who represents a number of the hardest-hit areas. A staunch conservative, Roy initially opposed Trump’s sweeping tax-cut and spending package however in the end supported it.
“He’s not simple, however he’s good,” Trump stated of Roy. The congressman, for his half, bristled at questions on authorities’ flood response, calling the queries about insufficient flood warnings “ridiculous.”
Seeing the harm close-up
Previous to the roundtable, Air Drive One landed in San Antonio and Trump deplaned in a swimsuit whereas the primary girl wore extra informal clothes — although each wore ball caps in opposition to the warmth. The Trumps then boarded a helicopter to Kerrville and noticed the flooding aftermath from the air. They later walked near the Guadalupe River to obtain a briefing from officers close to an overturned tractor trailer, quite a few downed bushes and different particles.
Roads within the middle of city have been shut down, and other people lined the streets, some sporting Trump hats and T-shirts and waving American flags. Inexperienced ribbons recognizing the lives misplaced at Camp Mystic have been tied round bushes, poles and alongside bridges, and marquees featured slogans comparable to “Hill Nation Robust” and “Thanks first responders.”
Harris Currie, a rancher from Utopia, Texas, close to Kerrville, stated the flood devastation may be absolutely understood solely by seeing it firsthand.
“Footage don’t do it justice,” Currie stated.
Requested what officers on the bottom wanted most urgently from federal sources, Kerr County Commissioner Jeff Holt, who is also a volunteer firefighter, burdened the necessity for repairs to nonworking cellphone towers and “perhaps a little bit higher early warning system.”
Trump himself has instructed {that a} main warning system must be established, although few particulars have been supplied on what that may ultimately entail.
Friday’s go to was far totally different from the opposite occasions the primary couple visited pure catastrophe websites, throughout Trump’s first weekend again within the White Home in January. They toured North Carolina to scope out damage from Hurricane Helene and noticed the aftermath of wildfires in Los Angeles, and the president sharply criticized the administration of his predecessor, President Joe Biden, and officers from deep-blue California.
“The state of Texas, No. 1 they do it proper they usually’ve executed it proper for a very long time,” Trump stated. “And it’s a really particular place to me.”
Weissert reported from Washington.
