by Daniel Brouse
June 5, 2025
The Trump administration’s ongoing denial of climate science and persistent spread of misinformation continues to pose a grave threat to public safety, national preparedness, and democratic freedoms. This threat is vividly illustrated by a recent incident involving David Richardson, the newly appointed head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), who reportedly tells staff during a Monday morning briefing that he was previously unaware the United States has a hurricane season—despite the 2025 season officially beginning on Sunday.
Richardson, appointed by President Trump in May, is expected to lead the nation’s emergency response as extreme weather events grow more frequent and destructive. Yet his lack of even the most basic understanding of the seasonal climate cycle reflects a deeper, systemic failure within the administration—one rooted in contempt for science and expertise.
Under Trump’s leadership, scientific consensus on climate change is dismissed as a political inconvenience. Federal agencies that once relied on climate data and risk models are now steered by loyalists who often lack relevant experience or actively reject environmental realities. Trump continues to dismantle regulations meant to address the climate crisis, suppresses climate research within government agencies, and attacks scientists who raise alarms about worsening environmental threats.
This willful ignorance is not just incompetent—it’s dangerous. When those in charge of disaster response do not understand the threats they are supposed to manage, the consequences are deadly. Hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and heatwaves are increasing in both frequency and intensity due to global warming, yet the federal government under Trump appears more committed to preserving a narrative of denial than to protecting lives.
The broader implications go beyond emergency management. When scientific truth is undermined at the highest levels of government, public trust in institutions erodes. Disinformation fills the void. Citizens are left confused, divided, and vulnerable—not just to climate disasters, but to the decay of democratic norms that depend on transparency, accountability, and fact-based governance.
President Trump’s pattern of appointing unqualified individuals to critical agencies reflects a broader strategy: control the narrative, ignore the data, and punish dissent. But the climate does not wait for politics. Nature operates on physical laws, not political spin.
The revelation about Richardson should alarm every American. It’s not merely a bureaucratic blunder—it’s a symptom of an administration that is deliberately sidelining science in favor of ideology. And in the era of climate crisis, that kind of leadership is not just negligent. It’s catastrophic.