Trump Visits Texas Flood Sites: ‘Hell of a Situation, Isn’t It?’

President Trump and Melania Trump traveled Friday to an area of Texas devastated by last weekend’s extreme flash flooding, which left more than 120 people dead. The president and first lady passed downed trees and saw an overturned tractor-trailer as local officials took them on a tour of a disaster zone around Kerrville, a community along the Guadalupe River that has become a hub for search and recovery work.

After the tour, Mr. and Mrs. Trump held a round table packed with state and local officials. Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, sat beside Mr. Trump. Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, both Republicans, were there, too. House members from across the state turned up, as did Phil McGraw, the Trump-supporting reality television star with Texas roots.

“Oh, there’s Dr. Phil,” Mr. Trump said. “Look at Dr. Phil. You’re looking good, Phil. This is a hell of a situation, isn’t it, huh?”

“This might be a time for you to give us some of your words of wisdom,” Mr. Trump said a bit later, and Dr. McGraw spoke for a while about how to comfort neighbors who have experienced the loss of a child.

Republican lawmakers, including Representative Chip Roy, whose district was the epicenter of the flood zone, praised the Trump administration for its response. “When I called you on Friday,” Mr. Chip said to Mr. Trump, “you said, ‘Whatever you need.’ When I called the secretary’s office, she called me within 15 minutes and said, ‘Whatever you need.’ And then she came here this weekend. I’ve never seen such a quick response and such a focus on delivering for the people.”

But there have been questions about the response at the local and federal levels. The president angrily batted away suggestions that there was something lacking in how authorities handled the tragedy.

A local reporter tried asking him about “several families we’ve heard from” who said warning alerts weren’t sent out soon enough, and that people died as a result.

“Only a bad person would ask a question like that,” Mr. Trump said. “To be honest with you, I don’t know who you are, but only a very evil person would ask a question like that.”

The national media was largely barred from the round table. But two pro-Trump social media influencers, Brian Glenn and Link Lauren, were let in. They heaped praise on Mr. Trump, and one tossed out politically friendly suppositions criticizing Democrats and others who had questioned the administration’s disaster response.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly described the flood in Texas as an unavoidable act of nature — “a hundred-year catastrophe,” as he has put it — but his administration has faced intense scrutiny over its level of preparedness and response, including concerns over unfilled positions at local offices of the National Weather Service and troubles at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Mr. Trump has talked of eliminating FEMA for months. The agency has lost about a quarter of its full-time staff, including some of its most experienced officials. It is housed under the Department of Homeland Security.

At the direction of Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, FEMA instituted a policy requiring all expenses over $100,000 — including the deployment of search-and-rescue teams — be approved directly by Ms. Noem. Questions have been raised about whether Ms. Noem’s decision contributed to delays in emergency relief.

At a cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday, Mr. Trump praised FEMA’s work, and Ms. Noem said that the agency was stronger under the current administration.

“FEMA has been deployed, and we’re cutting through the paperwork of the old FEMA, streamlining it much like your vision of how FEMA should operate,” she said. “It’s been a much better response to help these families get through this terrible situation.”

Russell T. Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, told reporters on Friday that the administration wanted to overhaul FEMA.

“We want FEMA to work well,” he said. “And, you know, the president is going to continue to be asking tough questions from all of his agencies.”

He added that FEMA had $13 billion in its reserves, and that Texas would get “anything it needs.”

More than 170 people were still missing, officials said. Twenty-seven campers and staff members were reported dead, and several were still missing at Camp Mystic, a girls summer camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River.

“We’re still looking for a lot of little girls and other family members that were camping along that river,” Ms. Noem said.

At the round table on Friday, Mr. Cruz talked about what it was like to walk through Camp Mystic in the aftermath. He described a cabin in the center of the camp “where the littlest girls were staying.” There are now 17 little white crosses out front. “In that cabin, eight feet high, you can see the water line,” he said. “It blew the windows out of the cabin, and it swept those girls out.”

“I’ve never seen anything more horrible in my life,” he said. “I just sat there crying.”

Maxine Joselow contributed reporting.

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