Enthusiastic Trump meets with storm victims
HOUSTON (AP) — US President Donald Trump cupped a boy’s face in his hands and then gave him a high-five. He snapped on latex gloves to hand out boxed lunches of hot dogs and potato chips. And he loaded relief supplies into vehicles, patted storm victims on the shoulder and declared the work “good exercise.”
An upbeat and optimistic president visited with victims of Harvey on Saturday, touring a Houston mega-shelter housing hundreds of displaced people and briefly walking streets lined with soggy, discarded possessions.
Trump met the scene with positivity, congratulating officials on an emergency response still in progress and telling reporters that he’d seen “a lot of love” and “a lot of happiness” in the devastation the storm left behind.
“As tough as this was, it’s been a wonderful thing,” Trump said of the Harvey response after spending time with displaced children inside NRG Center, an emergency refuge housing about 1,800 evacuees.
The trip, to Houston and Lake Charles, Louisiana, was Trump’s second to survey Harvey’s wake and a chance for the president to strike a more sympathetic tone.
He’d rushed to Texas on Tuesday, heading to Corpus Christi and Austin to talk to first responders. “What a crowd, what a turnout,” he’d said as he stood outside a firehouse.
He had minimal interaction with residents, saw no damage and offered few expressions of concern while on the ground, unusual omissions for a presidential visit to communities in crisis.
That made Saturday something of a do-over.
Joined by first lady Melania Trump, the president went directly to the NRG Center and was greeted warmly by volunteers and children.