They blame everything from DOGE to cuts to the National Weather Service to budget reductions at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), but as RedState’s Bonchie points out, most of those cuts haven’t even taken effect yet, and their predictions wouldn’t have changed no matter how high their funding.

This is an awful story, and like Bonchie, I’m heartbroken as a parent to contemplate the unimaginable pain the families of the victims are feeling at this time. There will be investigations, and reports, and studies to determine how this could have been better prevented, but this moment is not the time to throw out conjecture, uncorroborated theories and unfounded allegations.

Blaming the Trump administration for cuts that supposedly kneecapped our warning systems is a fool’s game, because as the DHS points out, the warnings went out. There are still questions to be answered about what happened next, but in the meantime, the media should stop throwing out baseless speculation when the waters haven’t even receded yet.

Updated 7/6 11:35 p.m. ET: Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee had something to say about it:

They’re not journalists

They’re activists

Americans know this—now more than ever https://t.co/DGYn2Wr7KZ

— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) July 7, 2025