Trump is often the worst culprit in politicizing disasters
Sometimes political choices do end up leading to disastrous outcomes. But not always.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted Monday that NWS offices in Texas made "timely and accurate forecasts and warnings." She said that the relevant NWS offices in New Braunfels had extra staff on duty for the storms despite claims to the contrary.

Leavitt slammed what she said were "depraved and despicable" efforts by some on the left to exploit the disaster politically "especially when so many Americans are mourning the loss of their children."

It’s hard to disagree.

But there’s a difference between social media users jumping to premature or outright false conclusions and politicians questioning whether Trump’s efforts to stifle government research and to gut the federal government will make it harder to forecast disasters like the one in Texas in the future.

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer demanded an immediate investigation by the Commerce Department’s inspector jugar coin volcano general into whether administration staff cuts made the tragic loss of life worth. He focused on vacancies at the San Angelo and San Antonio NWS offices.

Leavitt accused Schumer of pushing "falsehoods."

There’s a whiff of hypocrisy in the White House’s outrage, considering that Trump has politicized natural disasters for his own gain more than any modern president.

Trump slammed Democrats including Biden and local leaders over fatal wildfires that charred swaths of residential areas in Los Angeles just before he took office in January; he made false claims about water supplies and FEMA aid.

Trump also misrepresented federal relief efforts after storms hit North Carolina and Georgia last year. And he claimed that a collision between a civilian jetliner and military helicopter close to Washington’s National Airport that killed everyone on both aircraft was due to diversity and inclusion policies at the Federal Aviation Administration.

His track record raises the question of whether the White House would have been as keen to rush aid and to praise local officials if the holiday weekend’s flooding had occurred in a Democratic-run state rather than Republican Texas under Gov. Greg Abbott, an outspoken Trump supporter.

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