President Donald Trump touched down in Houston on Tuesday to meet with officials and assess the damage from Hurricane Harvey.
The storm has dumped nearly 50 inches of rain on southern Texas, leaving thousands of residents homeless. While President Trump and first lady Melania Trump visited Corpus Christi and Austin, the site of Hurricane Harvey’s emergency response center, he avoided the hardest hit areas of Houston.
Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters, “The president wants to be very cautious about making sure that any activity doesn’t disrupt any of the recovery efforts that are still ongoing, which is the reason for the locations we are going here today.”
However, today he claimed to have seen the devastation of Hurricane Harvey firsthand:
Trump also took time to lash out at the media:
Trump, an avid Twitter user, has spent the last few days tweeting about everything from North Korea to cutting taxes. He has even been seen wearing his own merchandise, which is for sale on his website, on his way to survey the damage.
Trump has yet to make a statement about the 30 people who lost their lives in the devastating flood. There was also no expressions of sympathy — he did not meet with any survivors of the flood.
It’s pretty safe to say that the president has failed to make one empathetic statement about the flooding. In fact, here are some of his most shocking quotes in the days following the monster storm:
“We don’t want to say congratulations. We’ll congratulate each other when it’s all finished.”
“We want to be looked at in five years, in 10 years from now as, this is the way to do it. We want to do it better than ever before.”
“I assumed the ratings would be far higher than they would be normally. You know, the hurricane was just starting.” [Trump responding to the Joe Arpaio pardoning]
Before even mentioning Hurricane Harvey, the President event took time out to promote a book by controversial Sheriff David A. Clarke:
He fired off a number of tweets with a celebratory tone, even though folks were dying:
And yes, even in the midst of the storm, he made a point to mention funding for the border wall:
After his quick trip to Texas, Trump is headed to Missouri to discuss tax cuts and tax reform. It is unclear if the president will return to the area after the rain water recedes, or if he will change his tone when discussing one of the costliest and damaging storms in U.S. history.