Froma Harrop

The flooding in Texas is cataclysmic. It was a hellscape as dozens, many of them girls from a summer camp, were swept to their deaths. Such tragedies spawn questions over whether the National Weather Service could have better warned the public. But this one is different in that the Trump administration is shrinking the weather service and vows to draw down the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Add to such losses the closing of rural hospitals due to Medicaid cuts and farmers suffering at the hands of Trump’s trade war. It’s a good guess that Trump doesn’t worry much about Trump Country. In any case, he’s not running again for president and so doesn’t need its voters. Now that his super rich supporters on Wall Street and in Palm Beach have their tax cuts, he may see the job as largely done.

One may have mixed feelings about some programs Trump wants to cut. I don’t discount the three ugly siblings of fraud, waste and abuse often found in them. Taxpayers shouldn’t have to cover rebuilding in flood zones.

I don’t live in hurricane alley, tornado alley or in flash flood alley. But FEMA should have a role in providing food, water, shelter or other emergency services at times of crisis.

While I’m OK with helping fellow Americans trying to recover from natural disasters, I’m not OK with Trump’s gaslighting America about where the money goes.

In February, Trump accused New York City of “massive fraud” for using FEMA money to house migrants. He accused hotels that provided temporary shelter of “making a fortune.” This produced cries of outrage all over MAGA country.

But here are some facts about FEMA:

The five states receiving the most FEMA dollars per person tend to be Florida, Louisiana, Alaska, Tennessee and Oklahoma. Known as FEMA’s “frequent fliers,” they are all red states.

Let’s look at total FEMA spending on direct financial assistance to residents. From 2015 through April 2024, Florida led the nation with payouts totaling $2.5 billion. It was closely followed by Louisiana’s $2.4 billion and Texas getting $2.3 billion, according to data from the Carnegie Disaster Dollar Database.

By contrast, Illinois received only about $300 million during that period. As for money FEMA spent housing migrants in New York City, that totaled a mere $81 million.

What about Democrat-run California? Deep blue California was the fourth top beneficiary, at $3.7 billion. That’s understandable given the state’s exposure to wildfires, earthquakes, flooding and mudslides — also its far higher population.

Trump says that responsibility for disaster management should be left mostly with state governments. He wants FEMA to be “phased out” after the 2025 hurricane season. Governors would then coordinate any response. If they can’t, Trump said, “they shouldn’t be governor.”

This vision seems plucked out of Project 2025, the blueprint for a second Trump term. It calls for “reforming FEMA emergency spending to shift the majority of preparedness and response costs to states and localities instead of the federal government.” It also wants to end most of the Department of Homeland Security’s grant programs. That would include work on disaster response and recovery.

One difference between California and many other states suffering a series of natural calamities is that California is rich. It can more easily pick up the costs. So could Texas.

Hundreds of FEMA employees have already been let go. Hundreds of scientists are gone from the National Weather Service. That includes several at the San Angelo office, which covers some of the hardest hit areas.

There’s too much pain here to sternly lecture Trump country on its false notions of where federal money goes. One can simply repeat that familiar line: “Elections have consequences.”

Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com.