President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump travel to Texas after the flood

president Donald Trump First lady Melania Trump left Kerrville, Texas on Friday after the area suffered heavy floods that claimed more than 120 lives.

The Guadalupe River soared more than 22 feet in just a few hours, and Trump is expected to meet with local officials and first responders, which suffered from disasters of flash floods.

Among those who died in the flood, at least 27 campers and counselors from Mystic Camp, a Christian summer camp that was founded nearly 100 years ago. Meanwhile, more than 160 people have disappeared and not been forgotten in Kerry County, Texas, following the flood, according to officials.

The White House revealed on Monday that Trump will visit the flood site to witness the disaster.

“I’m going with the First Lady on Friday, and we’re going to travel,” Trump said at a cabinet meeting Tuesday. “And we don’t want to know in the way anyone does, because that’s what happened. The president is gone and everyone is focusing. I don’t want anyone to focus on us, but they have the potential to have it.”

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The Trump administration faces Democratic scrutiny for its response to the disaster, especially for a new policy, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem Approved before the flood, she was asked to sign over $100,000 in any departmental expenses, including disaster-related expenses.

Noem reportedly waited more than 72 hours after the flood began, and then she approved the deployment of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) city search and rescue team, according to CNN.

at the same time, Neum dismisses the credibility of the report In Thursday’s “Fox & Friends” section, the report is “fake news.”

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees FEMA, told Fox News Digital that when asked about the CNN report, the agency “takes a full-time approach” in responding to the crisis.

“The old process was replaced because they failed in actual emergency for decades,” DHS spokesman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Trump also defended his administration’s response and said at the White House during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday: “The people you’re there are as quick as anyone has seen.”

Still, the disaster will create uncertainty about the future of FEMA as Trump calls for massive reforms to the agency.

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Search and rescue team seen in Kerrville, Texas on July 9, 2025. (Derek Shakes Fox News Numbers)

Trump said in June that he wanted to “get out of FEMA and we want to bring it back to the state level.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the future of FEMA was an ongoing discussion when asked whether the flood prompted Trump to reassess his position on overhauling FEMA.

“The president wants to make sure U.S. citizens always have what they need when they need it,” Levitt told reporters on Monday. “It’s a policy discussion whether it’s aid from the state or the federal government, and the president has been saying he wants states to do as much as possible, and even more.”

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Falling trees and debris caused by an angry Guadalupe River on July 4, 2025 in Kerrville, Texas. (Eric Gay/AP)

Meanwhile, Noem praised FEMA’s efforts to respond to the disaster at the cabinet meeting, even some MP Jared Moscowitz, D-Fla. , also called for investigation of reports on delayed FEMA response.

“FEMA has been deployed and we are cutting back on paperwork from the old FEMA, just like your vision for how FEMA should work, simplifying it,” Noam said. “Helping these families through this horrible situation is a better response.”