'Call a thing what it is’: Trump biographer says president caused Texas deaths

In a scathing social media post, Seth Abramson, biographer of President Donald Trump, directly blamed Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk for the deaths of more than 50 Texans in recent catastrophic flooding — arguing their politically driven decisions led to avoidable tragedy.

“I have no difficulty saying that Trump and Musk caused some of the 50+ flood deaths in Texas,” Abramson wrote in a widely shared thread on the social platform X.

“And here's why: these two men with no expertise in disaster preparedness were told not to cut the positions they cut, and were told people would die if they did. And then people died," he said.

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Abramson’s remarks come amid growing scrutiny over public service cuts made in Republican-led states, where disaster readiness programs have been downsized or gutted.

In Texas, where flash floods have left at least 50 people dead, analysts and former emergency managers have raised concerns that early warning systems, regional FEMA coordination, and infrastructure resilience have been compromised due to staffing and budget reductions.

Abramson urged Democratic leaders to take a more forceful stance over the tragedy. “Democrats are never going to start winning elections again until they're willing to call a thing just what it is,” he wrote. “Texas Democrats should be clear and persistent in saying that public service cuts overseen by non-experts desperate for billionaire tax cuts killed people.”

He preemptively addressed Republican rebuttals accusing Democrats of politicizing tragedy. “And if Republicans respond by saying that Democrats are politicizing these deaths,” Abramson added, “the Democrats should respond: THAT'S BECAUSE THE DEATHS ARE POLITICAL. POLITICIANS CAUSED THEM.”

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Abramson, who has written extensively on Trump’s business and political life, framed the Texas disaster as a warning of worse to come.

“A key reason we need to start having this conversation now—and why cowardly Democratic politicians need to get over their aversion to having this conversation—is because the number of dead attributable to Trump and Musk this year will be in the thousands or tens of thousands," he wrote in the X post.

The Texas floods, which resulted from unprecedented rainfall and infrastructure failures across several counties, are among the deadliest in recent state history. Emergency responders have said many deaths occurred in areas where early warning systems failed or where evacuation routes were unmaintained.

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