By Molly Claire Goddard
1:53pm PDT, Jul 9, 2025
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Rachel Maddow is linking
Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency cuts to the Texas floods. During an episode of
The Rachel Maddow Show, the left-leaning reporter gave a breakdown of how the firing of government employees affected the response to the disaster that took more than 100 lives.
Keep reading to see what she had to say… MORE:
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According to Rachel Maddow, many of the 109 people who lost their lives might have been saved if Donald Trump equipped the government with the proper personnel and if they had been better prepared. "There are real consequences to this president's efforts to dismantle the U.S. government. It's not just about ideology, it is about lives," she said. "Part of recovering from this historic and horrifying disaster is, of course, understanding whether we were ready for it, whether we could have done more."
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Rachel Maddow noted how the staff cuts at the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) under Donald Trump can account for the lack of preparedness. "Given how quickly that flooding situation escalated with the water rising 20 or 30 feet in the matter of an hour in some cases, it may be of some comfort to hear former officials from the National Weather Service saying the forecasts ahead of the storm may have been as good as could be expected," the MSNBC star said. "Beyond the vacancies at the regional offices, beyond the number of vacant positions, Texas also faced the loss of experienced people who would typically have helped communicate with local authorities in the hours after the flash flood warnings were issued overnight — for example, the warning coordination meteorologists with decades of experience who left that exact job in that exact place in the middle of the onslaught against government agencies led by Donald Trump and DOGE."
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According to reports, 850 people have been rescued, with at least 161 still missing after the tragic floods over the July 4 weekend in Texas. U.S. Coast Guard and Border Patrol's BORSTAR are currently on the hunt to find survivors. "Melania [Trump] and I are praying for all the families impacted by this horrible tragedy," Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social. "Our Brave First Responders are on site doing what they do best. GOD BLESS THE FAMILIES AND GOD BLESS TEXAS!"
