Donald Trump arrived in Texas on Friday for a first-hand look at the devastation caused by catastrophic flooding, a trip that comes as he has remained conspicuously quiet about his previous promises to do away with the federal agency in charge of disaster relief.
The Washington Post reported on Friday that the Trump administration has backed away from plans to abolish the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but administration officials continue to dodge questions about the agency’s future and many are still calling for serious reforms, potentially sending much of its work to the states.
Since the 4 July disaster, which has killed at least 120 people, the president and his top aides have focused on the once-in-a-lifetime nature of what occurred and the human tragedy involved rather than the government-slashing crusade that has been popular with Trump’s core supporters.
“Nobody ever saw a thing like this coming,” Trump told NBC News on Thursday, adding, “This is a once-in-every-200-year deal.” He has also suggested he would have been ready to visit Texas within hours but did not want to burden authorities still searching for the more than 170 people who are still missing.
Trump’s shift in focus underscores how tragedy can complicate political calculations, even though Trump has made slashing the federal workforce and charging ally-turned-antagonist Elon Musk with dramatically shrinking the size of government centerpieces of his administration’s opening months.
The president traveled to Texas on Air Force One with Melania Trump, the first lady, Brooke Rollins, the agriculture secretary, Scott Turner, the housing secretary, the small business administrator Kelly Loeffler, and senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz of Texas, among others. Trump is expected to do an aerial tour of some of the hard-hit areas.
The White House also says he will visit the state emergency operations center to meet with first responders and relatives of flood victims. Trump will also get a briefing from officials.
It is relatively common for presidents visiting disaster sites to tour the damage by air, a move that can ease the logistical burdens on authorities on the ground.
Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, observed the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina and Hurricane Milton in Florida last fall by air before meeting with disaster response officials and victims on the ground.
Trump, though, has also used past disaster response efforts to launch political attacks. While still a candidate trying to win back the presidency, Trump made his own visit to North Carolina after Helene last year and accused the Biden administration of blocking disaster aid to victims in Republican-heavy areas.
During his first weekend back in the White House, Trump again visited North Carolina to survey Helene damage and toured the aftermath of devastating wildfires in Los Angeles. But he also used those trips to sharply criticize the Biden administration and California officials.
During Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, Trump praised the federal flooding response. Turning to Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, which oversees Fema, he said: “You had people there as fast as anybody’s ever seen.”
Noem described traveling to Texas and seeing heartbreaking scenes, including around Camp Mystic, the century-old all-girls Christian summer camp where at least 27 people were killed.
“The parents that were looking for their children and picking up their daughter’s stuffed animals out of the mud and finding their daughter’s shoe that might be laying in the cabin,” she said.
Noem said that “just hugging and comforting people matters a lot” and “this is a time for all of us in this country to remember that we were created to serve each other”.
But the secretary is also co-chairing a Fema review council charged with submitting suggestions for how to overhaul the agency in coming months.
“We as a federal government don’t manage these disasters. The state does,” Noem told Trump on Tuesday.
She also referenced the administration’s government-reducing efforts, saying: ”We’re cutting through the paperwork of the old Fema. Streamlining it, much like your vision of how Fema should operate.”
Pressed this week on whether the White House will continue to work to shutter Fema, Karoline Leavitt would not say.
“The president wants to ensure American citizens always have what they need during times of need,” the White House press secretary said. “Whether that assistance comes from states or the federal government, that is a policy discussion that will continue.”
Before Trump left on Friday, Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, similarly dodged questions from reporters at the the White House about Fema’s future – instead noting that the agency has billions of dollars in its 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.”