Fact Check: Did Trump rant about washing machines during statement about Texas floods?

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: A viral post on X (formerly Twitter) claims that US President Donald Trump made a bizarre comment about washing machines and rainfall while discussing the deadly Texas floods in July 2025.

As of July 12, 2025, the post had been viewed over 1.5 million times.

Claim: Trump made a tone-deaf remark linking Texas floods to dishwashers

The post, which was widely shared across X, Threads, and other social media platforms, read, “Trump on deadly Texas floods: ‘You know, it's called rain. It rains a lot in certain places. But, now their idea, you know, did you see the other day? They just, I opened it up and they closed it again. I opened it, they close it, washing machines to wash your dishes.’”

Many users took the quote at face value, believing it was a recent remark made by Trump in response to the catastrophic flooding across Texas.

Fact Check: No, Trump’s quote was not about the July 2025 Texas floods

While the quote is real, it is not connected to the 2025 floods. Donald Trump made the statement on June 22, 2024, during a campaign rally in Philadelphia, well over a year before the floods occurred.

The quote came during a broader speech in which Trump criticized water flow restrictors in appliances like faucets, showers, and dishwashers. He argued that such regulations were unnecessary, especially in regions with abundant water due to frequent rainfall, such as Philadelphia.

The reference to “washing machines to wash your dishes” was part of a broader tangent against environmental regulations, not flood response.

The exact quote read, “No water in your faucets. You ever tried buying a new home and you turn it on? They have restrictors in there. You want to wash your hair. You want to wash your hands. You turn on the water and it goes drip, drip. The soap, you can't get it off your hand. So you keep it running for about ten times longer. You're trying.”

He went on adding, “They put restrictors and they put them on in places like here where there's so much water you don't know what to do with it. You know, it's called rain. It rains a lot in certain places. But, now their idea, you know, did you see the other day? They just, I opened it up and they closed it again. I opened it, they close it, washing machines to wash your dishes. There is a problem. They don't want you to have any water. They want no water.”

No public statement linking quote to 2025 flood disaster

A search for the quote, limited to July 2025, yielded no results outside of social media posts misattributing it to recent events. No mainstream media outlet reported the quote in connection with Trump’s remarks on the Texas floods, likely because no such connection exists.

Furthermore, no transcripts, press briefings, or official statements from the White House suggest that Trump addressed the floods in Texas using this language. If he had, it would have been picked up widely by national and international media, given the severity of the disaster and the strange nature of the quote.

The viral post claiming that President Trump made an incoherent comment about washing machines while discussing the July 2025 Texas floods is misleading. While Trump did say those words, they were spoken over a year earlier at a political rally and had nothing to do with the floods.

The quote was taken out of context and repackaged as part of a misinformation campaign circulating on social media.