Karoline Leavitt has been slammed for calling the Texas floods an ‘act of God’ to the press.
While most of America celebrated on the Fourth of July, many residents of Kerrville were battling for their lives in a deadly flash flood.
Rescue teams are still currently looking for missing persons and battling to help any survivors. The devastation has been enormous, with many lives lost, as well as campervans, holiday cabins and cars being destroyed.
An entire month’s worth of rain fell in a matter of hours causing the Guadalupe River to rise 26 feet, causing a statewide emergency.
Sadly, over 100 people have since lost their lives and with many more missing, that number is expected to rise.
84 of those victims died in Kerr county – 22 of which are adults and 10 are children who have not yet been identified.
Some officials have blamed the National Weather Service for not correctly warning residents and businesses of the risk.
It has been reported that several ‘crucial positions’ within the organization were not filled after the Department of Government Efficiency cost cutting regime spearheaded by Elon Musk.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has now responded to those who blame Donald Trump for this mishap.
“Blaming President Trump for these floods is a depraved lie and it serves no purpose in the time of national mourning,” she said. Adding that the NWS ‘executed timely and precise forecasts and warnings’ despite the ‘unprecedented rainfall’.
“That [the floods] was an act of God. It’s not the administration’s fault that the flood hit when it did, but there were early and consistent warnings and, again, the National Weather Service did its job.”
Now, some are criticizing her use of ‘an act of god’, with one person taking to X to write: “‘People were sleeping’ isn’t a defense, it’s why you send alerts sooner, not later. That’s the point of emergency management, not an excuse for failure,”. While another wrote “They couldn’t blame Biden for this one, so they blamed God,”.
A third penned: “An ‘act of God’ that will keep happening due to Trump’s gutting of NOAA. Guaranteed,”.
“That’s BS. Those alarms are loud as hell, they wake you up. Trump cut services and it backfired,” read another post.
On July 6, POTUS signed a major disaster declaration for Kerr County; “I would have done it today, but we’d just be in their way,”, “It’s a horrible thing that took place, absolutely horrible.”
Leavitt: "The alerts imminently were sent out before the flood when people were sleeping because the flood hit in the very early hours of the morning. People were sleeping in the middle of the night when this flood came. This was an act of God, it is not the administration's… pic.twitter.com/54PGFrXFU0
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 7, 2025