Could Weather Service Cuts Be Tied to the Texas Flooding Disaster?

In 2019, President Donald Trump famously altered a hurricane forecast map with a Sharpie to falsely claim that Hurricane Dorian would hit Alabama. The moment was absurd — and embarrassing. But like all things Trump, the petty didn’t stay petty for long. It metastasized into policy.

Welcome to the continuing saga of Sharpiegate — the moment when Trump’s ego got bruised by meteorologists, and in response, he decided to go after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its vital public weather services.

First, a Recap: What Was Sharpiegate?

On September 1, 2019, Trump falsely claimed Alabama was in Dorian’s path. The National Weather Service (NWS) in Birmingham quickly corrected the misinformation to avoid public panic. Trump, unable to admit a mistake, produced a doctored map with a Sharpie-drawn loop into Alabama. Instead of backing down, he forced NOAA leadership to issue a politically driven statement undermining its own scientists — a disgraceful act that earned public outcry and triggered internal investigations.

But Trump wasn’t finished.

Then Came Revenge

After the embarrassment, insiders say Trump became obsessed with controlling NOAA leadership and purging those he considered disloyal. In his second term plans — published by allies and right-wing think tanks — NOAA and the NWS are on the chopping block. Their independence? Threatened. Their staff? Targeted for cuts. Their data? Potentially privatized.

And when Elon Musk and DOGE came along, Trump ordered them to strip the agencies’ personnel.

The 2026 federal budget will close all NOAA labs, including the National Severe Storms Laboratory (founded more than 50 years ago), and others with similar long histories of innovation and accomplishment, such as the Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) and the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GDFL) – two labs instrumental in improving hurricane forecasts.

Why? Because a few brave scientists dared to tell the truth about a hurricane path — and that truth bruised his ego.

Why It Matters

NOAA and the NWS are nonpartisan, public institutions that save lives with real-time storm tracking, climate science, and emergency alerts. Undermining them over a vendetta isn’t just childish — it’s dangerous. It’s the politicization of life-and-death science.

Recently the devastating Texas floods raise questions about whether National Weather Service (NWS) staffing cuts and vacancies contributed to the disaster. While some officials and politicians are linking the two, others argue that the NWS issued accurate warnings, and that predicting flash floods, especially in complex terrain, is inherently difficult. But if Trump’s actions contributed even a small amount to the tragedy, it must be called out.

In Trump’s second term, do not expect a better weather forecast — expect fewer of them, slower warnings, and a chilling effect on every public servant who dares to speak facts over flattery.

Final Forecast

The real storm wasn’t Dorian.
It was a president so fragile, he took a Sharpie to science —
and then tried to erase the truth.

Our Waterloo isn’t just about policy collapse — it’s about moral collapse. And sometimes, it starts with something as small as a pen… and ends with dismantling the very institutions meant to protect us.