Unsettling question raised over Trump admin's role in devastating Nepal floods

The devastating flash floods in Nepal this week that killed at least 670 people and left around 3,000 missing — including 90 Americans — might have claimed fewer lives if not for the actions of the Trump administration, former USAID disaster-response chief Jeremy Konyndyk suggested on Saturday.

A series of catastrophic flash floods hit Nepal near its border with China on Wednesday causing unprecedented destruction. The event is believed to have been caused by a glacier collapse in the Himalayas.

Konyndyk, who led USAID’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic under the Biden administration, raised an unsettling question as to whether the Trump administration and its Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, may have crippled locals’ ability to adequately prepare for such a disaster.

“DOGE famously used keyword searches for terms like ‘climate’ to terminate federal grants,” Konyndyk wrote, referring to the DOGE-led blitz to gut funding for USAID, the U.S. Agency for International Development.

“Among the victims: a collab between USAID and NASA for flood prediction, early warning, disaster readiness, glacier inventories, and mapping dangerous glacial lakes… in Nepal.”

Spearheaded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, DOGE oversaw around $60 billion in cuts to U.S. foreign aid under the Trump administration, leaving “few surviving” USAID projects in its wake. Among the USAID programs Konyndyk said was affected was SERVIR, a program that produced detailed and advanced flood forecasting with “days lead time” that “allows people to plan and prepare for [floods].” The program also specifically monitored the “potentially dangerous glacial lakes of Nepal.”

A notice from NASA supports Konyndyk’s assertion that SERVIR was impacted by DOGE cuts.

“Earlier this month USAID notified SERVIR partners that they have terminated all agreements and contracts with NASA and the SERVIR network,” the notice, published in late March of 2025, reads. “Without the partnership with USAID, NASA cannot continue the SERVIR program.”