The President shall not forget the predecessors’s mistakes
Our Views: Trump visit a good start; deeper test of support comes in form of relief aid
Since he took office in January, President Donald Trump’s public relations gaffes have been widely documented. But in traveling to Texas on Tuesday to show solidarity with victims of Hurricane Harvey, the president demonstrated that he knows the value of responding quickly when America is touched by disaster.
Trump’s predecessors offered a couple of case studies in the political dangers of delay when answering a national catastrophe. After Hurricane Katrina, President George W. Bush initially drew widespread criticism for seeming aloof from the agony of Louisiana, a perception prompted by a photo of Bush surveying the damage from the window of Air Force One, thousands of feet above the fray.
After last year’s flooding ravaged Louisiana, President Barack Obama opted not to interrupt his vacation to visit the state, which didn’t sit well with his critics, including then-presidential candidate Trump. Trump and his running mate, Mike Pence, came to Baton Rouge days before Obama, who eventually made the trip after his vacation wrapped up. Trump’s Democratic rival in the race, Hillary Clinton, promised to visit flood victims later but never arrived.
Louisiana is a solidly red state, and Trump’s flood-related visit last year — and how Obama and Clinton chose to respond — wasn’t going to affect the state’s role in the Electoral College math.
But the way that presidents respond to regional disasters can resonate far beyond a single state. That’s certainly true of the ongoing crisis in Texas, which calls a commander-in-chief to express the support of an entire nation for those in Harvey’s path.
“Probably there’s never been anything so expensive in our country’s history,” Trump said during his Texas visit. “There’s never been anything so historic in terms of damage and in terms of ferocity as what we’ve witnessed with Harvey.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbot said that Trump “was heartbroken about what he saw. He is committed to ensuring that Texas can rebuild.”
The deeper test of national leadership for both the president and Congress will come in coming months after the media focus on Harvey fades. Here in Louisiana, we know all too well about the shortened attention span for disasters.
In the wake of last year’s flooding in the state, lots of officials pledged not to forget the challenges of Louisiana’s recovery. More than a year later, residents continue to wait for the federal funding required to finish the job.
