President tours Fla. devastation

Trump offers hoagies, handshakes, promise of 100% support

NAPLES, Fla. — President Donald Trump doled out hoagies and handshakes in the sweltering Florida heat on Thursday as he toured Irma’s devastation and congratulated the federal and state recovery effort.

Trump, who was in and out of the state in about three hours, got an aerial view of the water-deluged homes along Florida’s southwestern coast from his helicopter, then drove in his motorcade along streets lined with felled trees, darkened traffic lights and shuttered stores on his way to a mobile home community hit hard by the storm.

Walking along a street in Naples Estates with his wife, Melania, the president encountered piles of broken siding and soggy furniture sitting on a front porch, and residents and volunteers who were happy to get a presidential visit.

“We are there for you 100 percent,” Trump said before donning gloves and helping to hand out sandwiches to local residents from a lunch line under a canopy. “I’ll be back here numerous times. This is a state that I know very well.”

As he left the state, Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he planned another hurricane-related trip, to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, both badly hit by Irma.

“I spoke to both governors. We’ve got it very well covered,” Trump said. “Virgin Islands was really hit. They were hit about as hard as I’ve ever seen.”

Trump met with federal and state leaders in Fort Myers, where he was brimming with enthusiasm for the state and federal response effort, calling it “a team like very few people have seen.”

The president told reporters in Fort Myers that he was hopeful that Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a two-term Republican, would run for the Senate, where Democrat Bill Nelson is up for re-election next year.

Trump’s visit offered him the chance to see how people are coping with Irma’s aftermath and how the Federal Emergency Management Agency is responding. Many Florida residents remain swamped and without electricity. Nearly 2.7 million homes and businesses, about 1 in 4 Florida customers, were without power Thursday.

In Lee County, which includes Cape Coral and Fort Myers, outages led to long lines outside the relatively few stores, gas stations and restaurants that had reopened.

The situation was worse in Collier County, home to Naples. Almost 80 percent of homes and businesses were without electricity, and floodwaters covered some communities entirely.