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'These Deaths Are on Trump's Hands': Texas Flooding Spotlights Assault on Climate Science
"The Trump regime is gutting scientific research into climate and atmospheric science for political reasons, at the very time we need a much better understanding of it," said one environmentalist. "This is so reckless and dangerous."
Jul 07, 2025
Deadly flooding caused by torrential rain in central Texas late last week 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.
Though local National Weather Service (NWS) forecasters did issue warnings in the lead-up to Friday's flooding—which killed at least 82 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, in addition to 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 Sunday 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."
"Republicans have fired meteorologists, cut emergency disaster aid, and given an extra $18 billion to the fossil fuel corporations causing this crisis."
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 Sunday 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."
"The Trump regime is gutting scientific research into climate and atmospheric science for political reasons, at the very time we need a much better understanding of it," environmentalist Stephen Barlow wrote on social media on Sunday. "This is so reckless and dangerous, which is why I suggest we call these tragedies Trump events."
Aru Shiney-Ajay, executive director of the Sunrise Movement, said over the weekend that "Republicans have fired meteorologists, cut emergency disaster aid, and given an extra $18 billion to the fossil fuel corporations causing this crisis."
"These deaths are on Trump's hands," she added.
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'An Act of Retaliation': EPA Suspends 140+ Employees for Signing 'Declaration of Dissent'
The employees were put on leave after they signed a letter saying the Trump EPA's actions "endanger public health and erode scientific progress."
Jul 04, 2025
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has put 144 employees on leave after they signed a letter criticizing the Trump administration's "harmful" policies.
EPA press secretary Brigit Hirsch accused the employees of "undermining, sabotaging, and undercutting the administration's agenda." But the union that represents these employees is calling it an act of illegal "retaliation."
The "declaration of dissent", published by Stand Up for Science Monday, had been signed by 620 people as of Thursday. Addressed to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, the letter accused the administration of "recklessly undermining" the agency's mission under his watch. It accused the administration of "ignoring scientific consensus to benefit polluters."
"This administration's actions directly contradict EPA's own scientific assessments on human health risks, most notably regarding asbestos, mercury, and greenhouse gases," the letter said.
Since Trump retook office, the administration has eviscerated policies meant to contain pollution, slashing funding for green energy production and electric vehicles while championing increased fossil fuel drilling and consumption. It has also rolled back the enforcement of limits on cancer-causing "forever chemicals" in water.
The signatories also pointed to the Trump EPA's "undermining of public trust" by using official channels to trumpet "misinformation and overtly partisan rhetoric."
They called out EPA press releases, which have referred to climate science as a "religion," EPA grants as "green slush funds," and "clean coal" as "beautiful." The letter also suggested the EPA had violated the Hatch Act by promoting political initiatives like Trump's tariffs and the Republican budget reconciliation bill.
"Make no mistake: your actions endanger public health and erode scientific progress—not only in America—but around the world," the letter said.
The employees also accused the administration of "promoting a culture of fear." They cited comments by top Trump officials, such as Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, who has said he wanted to put EPA employees "in trauma" and make them unable "to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains."
While some signatories signed their names, many others chose to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. That retaliation came Thursday, when—according to The New York Times—144 employees received an email putting them on leave for the next two weeks "pending an administrative investigation."
The decision was widely criticized as a violation of the employees' First Amendment rights.
Tim Whitehouse, the executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which has previously represented EPA and other employees, said federal employees are allowed to publicly criticize the administration they work for.
"The letter of dissent did really nothing to undermine or sabotage the agenda of the administration," Whitehouse told The Washington Post. "We believe strongly that the EPA should protect the First Amendment rights of their employees."
Bill Wolfe, a former environmental policy professional with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said that the letter "was a classic form of whistleblowing that is protected by federal whistleblower laws and the 1st Amendment, as upheld by federal courts."
Justin Chen, the union representative for EPA employees under the American Federation of Government Employees, told the Times that the agency's actions were "clearly an act of retaliation" and said the union would "protect our members to the full extent of the law."
Despite the punishment, one of the signatories anonymously told The Post that they had no regrets.
"I took the risk knowing what was up," the employee wrote. "I'll say it before, and now it rings even more true … if this is the EPA they want me to work for, then I don't want to work for the EPA."
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America Worst, Codified: Trump’s Horrific, Harmful, Horrendous Bill and Our Future
We who believe in justice, equality, diversity, love, sustainability, peace, and so much more, are still here, and we can still, ultimately, win.
Jul 03, 2025
America Worst has arrived in full, right on time for July 4. Cue the war-mimicking fireworks, that ultra-American metaphor for this country’s “virtual” wars and endless militarism. Years in the making, decades of trickle-down, warmongering, and fearmongering insanity have now been codified and more deeply entrenched than ever with President Donald Trump’s huge, horrific, horrendous bill passing the House July 3.
As Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) gaveled in the final results, Republicans chanted “USA, USA, USA” on the House floor, in a truly sickening, pathetic display. They know better: They know they just passed massive tax breaks for the rich at everyone else’s expense, while adding $3.3 TRILLION in debt and slashing healthcare and Medicaid access. They know.
All Americans who are not rich should be angry—very angry. It may take a year or two for much of the pain and suffering to arrive, but be assured, it’s coming (packaged cynically to set in just after the 2026 midterms). Much of the harm will come to Trump voters themselves, working-class and poor people in rural areas that can least afford yet more gutting of already-meager healthcare access. Not to mention the millions who will lose food assistance.
The wreckage and suffering and pain caused by this bill is now fully on the Republicans. They own this disaster entirely.
The pain and hardship and suffering will come. Many Trump voters will lose healthcare; lose food assistance; get less workplace safety and rights on the job; will find their local rivers and streams, their air and drinking water, more polluted and less healthy. Many Trump voters will find far longer wait times—if they’re “lucky”—at local clinics and hospitals due to spending and staffing cuts.
Budgets are indeed moral documents and statements—or, in this case, profoundly immoral and deeply depraved ones. This sickening, sad, shameful bill delivers the ultimate reverse Robin Hood, cutting Medicaid (health insurance for low-income and disabled Americans) by more than $1 trillion over 10 years, cutting off health insurance to about 12 million Americans, and raiding hundreds of billions of dollars from food assistance for low-income Americans.
Lest we forget, this bill decimates our ecological future by gutting renewable energy supports while expanding yet more species-destroying fossil fuels. This less-heralded injury to us all could be the ultimate imperilment, at precisely the time we need the opposite.
All of this is like Reagan redux, along with Trump’s Nixonian vile viciousness and corruption—all on steroids. Actually, Trump and his bill are worse than all of that.
Trump’s disgusting, despicable, disastrous bill could of course ignite a Blue Wave in 2026 and could badly backfire on Republicans. And we can and should work for that, to at least diminish the harm and destruction Trump is causing.
In this razor-close vote battle on Trump’s repugnant, regrettable, regressive bill, the Democrats stayed unified and held strong in their ranks. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) put on an admirable show, breaking the House record with an eight-hour, 44-minute speech to stall things—but, like Sen. Cory Booker’s (D-N.J.) impressive marathon in the Senate some months ago, it was a show, a performance without concrete impact or consequences.
I beg of you, please, do not count on the Democrats, or the Democratic Party, to rescue us or salve the wide-open gaping wounds of America Worst. I know from extensive firsthand experience just how deeply disappointing and inadequate the less-evil, slower-road-to-hell party is. (And yes, I still will fight for Democrats to win, until we get a serious real alternative, because real human lives are at stake and less harm is still less harm.)
With everything on the line, and with a real chance at defeating Trump’s grotesque, galling, grim bill, the Democrats came up woefully short—not on the vote itself, but in organizing their members to prevent this nightmare. The party failed to organize and promote massive phone banks and other actions to mobilize swing-district voters to pressure their representatives against the bill.
This is a critical moment for us to show ourselves, and the world, this hateful, horrendous, harmful bill is not who we are.
I was astounded to find that the Democratic Party (nationally and in California) failed to put serious resources into the one thing that could have prevented this disaster—mass phone banking in the critical districts where it was most needed. There were some efforts, mostly from progressive and liberal groups, mostly to call one’s own reps. I personally urged the party repeatedly to deploy huge phone banks targeting these swing votes, yet there was shockingly little of it. The national and California Democratic Party social media pages offered no opportunities for this critical action to take place. I checked every day and saw no phone banks.
Finally, I called and messaged the California Democratic Party repeatedly, and finally got a call back from an excellent, overworked, dedicated organizer, who emailed me a link to a phone bank calling voters in swing districts here. That is what it took for me, a highly active, involved, and experienced activist, to get plugged in. I immediately shared the phone bank links widely. None of the California Democratic Party social media pages offered the link. Astounding and bizarre.
How can this be? I checked numerous major labor union social media pages and again found no opportunities to affect swing districts. Just a couple posts here and there to call your own rep. How can this possibly be, with everything on the line? Yes, the big unions did protest, and did have some phone banks here and there—but where was the massive, coordinated nationwide push to apply maximal pressure on those potential swing votes to defeat this outrageously awful bill?
With this atrocious legislation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids will expand and intensify even more, sending yet more terror into immigrant communities nationwide, all while racially profiling Black and Brown people, and often detaining and deporting people to viciously dangerous places, putting their lives in danger. How profoundly and deeply cruel and inhumane and rotten. All of this will get worse and will require even stronger resistance.
America Worst is here, folks. Trump is destroying this country before our eyes. But we who believe in justice, equality, diversity, love, sustainability, peace, and so much more, are still here, and we can still, ultimately, win. We all must rise up and resist. We all must do everything we can, and do it far better, in massive, coordinated fashion. We must build toward a real, labor-and-community-centered General Strike. We must continue to stop every bad, rotten, destructive thing Trump does. We must continue building genuine alternatives on and in the ground, in our communities.
Amid this America Worst moment, let’s remember—Trump’s terrible, tragic, trauma-inducing bill does not represent us. Barely half of Congress passed a measure by a president who didn’t even win a popular vote majority (and narrowly won those swing states). This bill is not us. It is the rich enriching the rich, yet again, at our expense. We are far, far better than this. Amid all this America Worst harm and destruction, this is a critical moment for us to show ourselves, and the world, this hateful, horrendous, harmful bill is not who we are.
The wreckage and suffering and pain caused by this bill is now fully on the Republicans. They own this disaster entirely. But if we all rise up, build stronger movements of resistance, and real political alternatives, we can still own the future.
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