Trump’s failure to be a president now international news as his ‘threat’ swoops in to save America

As search and rescue efforts continue after the terrible floods that hit Texas Hill Country over the July 4th weekend, killing at least 120 people, including many children, a clear difference has appeared between help from other countries and the U.S. government’s emergency response. While Mexican rescue teams quickly arrived to help search for missing people, reports show that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) faced major delays because of new federal spending rules.

In the middle of this tragedy, new details have come out showing that FEMA’s response was slowed down by a strict rule put in place by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. According to CNN, this rule says she must personally approve every contract or grant over $100,000, which took away much of FEMA’s ability to act quickly when it was needed most.

Meanwhile, help came from Mexico, as reported by New Republic. After the disaster, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum sent firefighters and rescue workers from the Acuña Fire Department and Civil Protection team, along with volunteers from the Mexican nonprofit Fundación 911, to Kerrville, Texas.

FEMA had to wait days to help Texas, but ironically, Mexico jumped in quickly

FEMA officials said urban search and rescue teams were ready to go as the waters rose on Friday, but they did not get approval from the secretary until Monday, more than 72 hours after the flooding started. The flooding was catastrophic, with water rushing in fast and with terrifying power, leaving rescue teams struggling to deal with the huge amount of damage. Survivors have shared frightening stories about how quickly the water rose and the screams of people being swept away.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said FEMA is changing from what they called a “bloated DC-centric deadweight” to a “lean, deployable disaster force” that focuses on helping state agencies. But former FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell raised concerns about the new rule, saying that “time is our most precious commodity” in emergencies.

She explained that sending help early, even before the full scale of a disaster is known, is key to saving lives. This new approval step, she said, makes FEMA slower and less able to act fast, which could cost lives. Under the old system, she said, teams would have been ready to go on Friday instead of waiting until Monday for approval.

The $100,000 limit might sound like a lot, but in big disasters, it’s actually a small amount. Criswell pointed out that most federal disaster support costs more than that, meaning this rule makes FEMA’s job much harder. What can you expect when the head hadn’t heard of hurricane season and we already said cuts to FEMA would hurt red states like Texas.

Ironical, isn’t it? The nation’s president is making it difficult to save its people and the country he has officially labeled a problem had to step in to help.