Your Independent Journal from the Heartland
Deadly flooding caused by torrential rain in central Texas in early July called attention to U.S. President Donald Trump’s full-scale assault on the climate research and monitoring agencies tasked with studying and predicting such weather catastrophes, as well as his ongoing attacks on disaster preparedness and relief, Jake Johnson noted at CommonDreams.org (7/7).
Though local National Weather Service (NWS) forecasters issued warnings in the lead-up to the July 4 flooding—which killed more than 100 people, including dozens of children—key roles were reportedly vacant ahead of the downpour, prompting scrutiny of the Trump administration’s mass firings and budget cuts, after years of neglect and failures by Republicans at the state level.
Asked whether he believes the federal government should hire back terminated meteorologists in the wake of the Texas flooding, Trump responded in the negative and falsely claimed that “very talented people” at NWS “didn’t see” the disaster coming.
“This is an absolute lie,” replied meteorologist and climate journalist Eric Holthaus. “Worse, this is the person responsible for making those kids less safe and he’s trying to deny the damage he caused.”
Holthaus wrote July 6 that Trump’s staffing cuts “have particularly hit the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Environmental Modeling Center, which aims to improve the skill of these types of difficult forecasts.”
“Though it’s unclear to what extent staffing shortages across the NWS complicated the advance notice that local officials had of an impending flooding disaster,” he added, “it’s clear that this was a complex, compound tragedy of a type that climate warming is making more frequent.”
Under the guise of “government efficiency,” the Trump administration has taken an axe to staff at federal climate agencies and is trying to go even further with its budget for the coming fiscal year. The Washington Post noted July 6 that “a budget document the Trump administration recently submitted to Congress calls for zeroing out climate research funding for 2026, something officials had hinted at in previous proposals but is now in lawmakers’ hands.”
“But even just the specter of President Donald Trump’s budget proposals has prompted scientists to limit research activities in advance of further cuts,” the Post noted. “Trump’s efforts to freeze climate research spending and slash the government’s scientific workforce have for months prompted warnings of rippling consequences in years ahead. For many climate scientists, the consequences are already here.”
Since the start of his second term, Trump has dismissed the hundreds of scientists and experts who were working on the National Climate Assessment, moved to slash NOAA’s workforce, and announced a halt to climate disaster tracking, among other changes—all while working to accelerate fossil fuel extraction and use that is supercharging extreme weather events. One NOAA veteran warned that Trump’s cuts could drag the agency back to “the technical and proficiency levels we had in the 1950s.”
