As lethal floods tore through Texas and the feds failed to quickly organize help, frustrated locals complained to one another about how useless the Trump administration was. In one message surfaced by public record requests, Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice referred to U.S. Department of Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem as "homeland Barbie."

The text was sent July 5, hours after Rice and Noem had taken part in a press conference in Kerrville regarding the then-ongoing search and rescue efforts in the region. Rice did not respond to an email seeking comment Sunday, a day after city officials released records showing his communications from July 3-5. At least 137 people died statewide, 108 of them in Kerr County, during the historic flooding event earlier this month.

Beyond unreflective lo

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