President Donald Trump suggested the tragic loss of life that occurred in Texas as a result of historic flooding could have been mitigated if the county had “bells... or something, go off.”
In an interview with his daughter-in-law Lara Trump on her Fox News show, My View with Lara Trump, the president spoke about the floods that have killed at least 129 people. On Friday, he visited Kerrville, Texas, where he met with officials and spoke to the media alongside wife Melania.
Lara asked her father-in-law, ”What is your message to the people who are suffering down there, to the parents of the young girls at the camp who were killed?”
The president replied, ”There can be nothing worse than losing a child, and the way this happened… there was very early warning, they warned the day before, they warned even two days before, they warned four hours before…”
He added, ”Maybe they should have had bells… or something, go off. But it’s pretty dangerous territory when you think of all the times they’ve had this problem.”
Local officials have come under scrutiny in the aftermath of the floods, with many questioning why—unlike other flood-prone counties—Kerr County did not have an alert system in place.
Camp Mystic, which lost 27 campers and counselors in the floods, is located in a high-risk flood zone, and a hazard mitigation report sent to FEMA by Kerr County in October 2024 said that a flood that might. exceed historical records was likely within a year, The New York Times reported.
County officials said in a statement to The Times, “Our city and county leadership are committed to a transparent and full review of past actions.”
On at least three occasions between 2017 and 2024, Kerr County officials applied for funding for an alarm-based flood warning system, but their requests were denied by the state, the report added.
Following the devastating floods, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said there “should have been sirens” in Kerr County, and that if local officials could not afford them, “the state will step up.”
While Gov. Greg Abbott said that the state legislature would investigate the floods, he hit back at attempts to assign blame earlier this week, arguing that ”every team makes mistakes” and that blame was ”the word choice of losers.”
Trump echoed these sentiments at his press conference in Kerrville on Friday, lashing out at a CBS News reporter who asked what the president would say to families who were upset about not receiving alerts in time.
“Well, I think everyone did an incredible job under the circumstances,” Trump responded, before adding, “only a bad person would ask a question like that, to be honest with you.”
“I don’t know who you are, but only a very evil person would ask a question like that.”
