Far-right conspiracy theories spread online in aftermath of the Texas floods

Disasters and tragedies have long been the source of American conspiracies, old and new. So when devastating flash floods hit Texas over the Fourth of July weekend, and as the death toll continues to rise, far-right conspiracists online saw their opportunity to come out in full force, blurring the lines of what’s true and untrue.

Some people, emerging from the same vectors associated with the longstanding QAnon conspiracy theory, which essentially holds that a shadowy “deep state” is acting against president Donald Trump, spread on X that the devastating weather was being controlled by the government.

“I NEED SOMEONE TO LOOK INTO WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS,” posted Pete Chambers, a former special forces commander and frequent fixture on the far right who once organized an armed convoy to the Texas border, along with documents he claimed to show government weather operations. “WHEN WAS THE LAST CLOUD SEEDING?”

The same chain of posts on the social media platform X singled out a California-based “precipitation enhancement” company as a potential culprit.

It didn’t take long for one of the most integral figures in the QAnon movement to repost Chambers, which received millions of views on the Elon Musk owned-app.

“Anyone able to answer this?” wrote retired general Mike Flynn, a former national security adviser in the Trump administration and who helped legitimize QAnon after pledging allegiance to the movement in 2020, reposting Chambers.

Conspiracists and grifters on other platforms joined in. One YouTuber with hundreds of thousands of subscribers posted breathless coverage of what he called: “The TRUTH of WEATHER MANIPULATION” in a segment which earned him close to 200,000 views alone.

The halls of Congress echoed the sentiment, as Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene – a vaccine skeptic and GOP hardliner, who has espoused Jeffrey Epstein conspiracies – didn’t waste the moment to say she was introducing a bill of her own after the floods.

“I am introducing a bill that prohibits the injection, release, or dispersion of chemicals or substances into the atmosphere for the express purpose of altering weather, temperature, climate, or sunlight intensity,” she wrote on X as the aftermath of the floods continued. “It will be a felony offense.”

There were also amplifications of a false story that rescuers found two girls who were allegedly found alive near Comfort, Texas – something CNN’s Brian Stelter pieced together. Laura Loomer, another far-right propagandist and one of Maga’s biggest stars, retweeted a story that stemmed from a volunteer rescuer who had heard the rumor. Eventually, the tale was disproven.

Of course, there has been much debate online about who is to blame for the deadly floods, with many not just turning to outlandish weather manipulation allegations, but pointing the finger at the Trump administration’s recent budget cuts in favor of things like the massive funding of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In a viral post on Instagram, the Austin Firefighters Association blamed its chief for delaying the flood response in the hard hit Kerr County, because he was more interested in saving money rather than the lives of potential flood victims.

“Why would Fire Chief Joel G. Baker do this, you may ask?” the post read. “It was a misguided attempt to save money.”

The National Weather Service has also faced scrutiny in the wake of the disaster after underestimating the amount of rainfall that was dumped upon central Texas. Late-night alerts about the dangerous floods were issued by the service but the timeliness of the response and coordination with local emergency services, will be reviewed by officials.

Texas senator Ted Cruz, who was again on vacation overseas during a natural disaster in his state that claimed the lives of his constituents, helped push the so-called “big, beautiful bill” last week, which among other major cuts, ensured weather forecasting funding was slashed significantly nationwide.

Posts on the Telegram app, in the neo-Nazi and far-right circles that characteristically find racist inspirations behind every news event – yet still mostly supports the Trump administration – were highly critical of the flood response and blamed it on the government’s stupidity.

“There is brewing resentment in Texas against their state government from both Democrats and Republicans for their lack of emergency management at the state level, and the incompetence in planning and building disaster mitigation projects,” posted one account.

Another post promoted the idea that the Trump administration had failed to protect “White girls’ lives”, in reference to the death of 27 campers at Camp Mystic, and in general “White Americans”.

Meme makers on the left have taken the opportunity to mock the right, with one popular image spreading online using the Simpson’s character, Principal Skinner, shown wondering if Trump’s cuts, perhaps, are to blame for the deaths in Texas.

“No, it must have been Democrats using a weather modification machine,” the caption concludes.