By Molly Claire Goddard
5:06pm PDT, Jul 16, 2025
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Rachel Maddow made a bold comparison about how two United States presidents handled natural disasters. During an
episode of
The Rachel Maddow Show, the Democratic anchor compared the way
George W. Bush took on Hurricane Katrina in 2005 to the way
Donald Trump is managing the aftermath of the Texas floods.
Keep reading to see what she had to say…MORE:
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Rachel Maddow kicked off the segment by sarcastically asking Donald Trump if he knows who FEMA Director David Richardson is while recalling the leader of the organization who was appointed by George W. Bush, Michael D. Brown. "This is a man whose main experience in disasters was that he had caused some minor organizational disasters in his tenure as head of an Arabian horse association," the left-wing anchor said of Brown. "How did he end up at FEMA? I don't know. He was a friend of George W. Bush's campaign manager and he was a Republican." Maddow then flashed an infamous photo of Bush looking down on the wreckage of Hurricane Katrina, adding it looked "like he was enjoying his trip to the aquarium." Continued the journalist, "Bush never could quite answer why he praised Brownie, why he praised his FEMA director, Michael Brown, for doing a 'heck of a job,' or more importantly, why he put this guy — why he'd put the Arabian horse association guy with zero disaster experience — in that job in the first place."
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Rachel Maddow then slammed Donald Trump's FEMA Director David Richardson for dropping the ball with the Texas floods. "The first time anybody had seen hide nor hair of President Donald Trump's man running FEMA after one of the biggest floods in this country in decades was this weekend when he finally showed up," the MSNBC host said. "In the immediate aftermath of the flood, Trump's Homeland Security department, of which FEMA is a part, they apparently forgot or at least neglected to extend the contract to pay the people who answer the phones when you call FEMA for help. So all the people at the FEMA call center got fired on July 5 and more than 80% of calls for help after the flood did not get answered."
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As she continued her comparisons, Rachel Maddow emphasized how Donald Trump and George W. Bush's FEMA directors, David Richardson and Michael D. Brown, lacked the experience to do the job. "Have I mentioned that Trump's FEMA pick is the first person to run FEMA since Brownie who has no disaster response or emergency management experience at all?" she claimed. "He did remember that great photo of George W. Bush, though and made sure to take pains to replicate it exactly this weekend."
