'Sign of sickness and dysfunction': Why GOP 'defaults' to 'fealty' in wake of disaster

While catastrophic floods have killed more than 100 people in Texas, Guardian writer David Smith says Republicans can’t stop falling over President Donald Trump long enough to address the problem.

“Republicans’ default response has been to express fealty to Donald Trump,” writes Smith. “They lavished praise on the president for providing federal assistance while studiously avoiding questions around the effect of his ‘department of government efficiency’ (DOGE) or threats to dismantle the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Rick Wilson, a co-founder of anti-Trump group the Lincoln Project offered a similar take.

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“It is a sign of the sickness and dysfunction of what was the Republican Party that they have almost no thoughts about their constituents,” said Wilson. “Their thoughts are, how do I avoid making sure that Donald Trump doesn’t look at me as an enemy or a critic?”

Wilson went on to say: “Despite the fact that the DOGE cuts and the reductions in force and the early buyouts have savaged the workforce of the National Weather Service, they can’t even utter the slightest vague, elliptical critique of the administration that is now engaged in these cuts that have cost the lives of the people they supposedly represent.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott praised Trump for approving “swift and very robust” disaster relief. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News: “The National Weather Service under President Trump has been working to put in new technology and a new system because it’s been neglected for years.” She didn’t mention that Trump was president once before and had proposed making cuts to the National Weather Service then.

Senator Ted Cruz, meanwhile, wrote on the X that “President Trump committed ANYTHING Texas needs”, and told a press conference: “There’s a time to have political fights, there’s a time to disagree. This is not that time.”

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Republicans appear to be in “thoughts and prayers” mode, says Smith, “as if the tragedy transcends politics.” Party leaders keep their blame on “a freak act of nature rather than contemplating a potential association with Trump’s policies.” It does not matter that DOGE pushed the NWS to cut jobs and gave hundreds of employees the option to retire early rather than face potential dismissal. This includes a top leadership role at the NWS’s San Antonio office, which has “been vacant since earlier this year after Paul Yura accepted an offer from the Trump administration to retire,” says Smith.

Smith and other critics say Republicans should get used to the fallout over cuts. Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said “every time there is something tragic that happens, not just a natural disaster but a mass shooting or you fill in the blank, somebody is going to find a connection to these deep cuts in government engineered by Trump and Musk.”

Read the full Guardian report at this link.