Trump Visited Rain-Drenched North Carolina and It Went About as Well as You’d Expect

“At least you got a nice boat out of the deal.”

Trump stands in front of a home that suffered damage from Hurricane Florence; in the background is a yacht that washed ashore.Evan Vucci/AP

After Hurricane Florence dumped 34 inches of rain on the Carolinas, swelling rivers and flooding neighborhoods and towns, President Donald Trump toured the particularly hard-hit areas in North Carolina. As of Wednesday, 37 people had been killed by the storm. The president, who is still being criticized for pelting survivors with paper towels after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico last September, has once again attracted criticism for the way he spoke with survivors of Hurricane Florence on Wednesday.

According to White House pool reports, while Trump was being briefed before his tour began, he asked an official about Lake Norman, a town near Charlotte. When the official told him it was doing just fine, Trump responded with, “I can’t tell you why, but I love that area.” One likely reason for his affection might be that there is a Trump National Golf Club located there.

Later on, while in New Bern, Trump encountered a man whose house was damaged by the storm, and whose insurance company, he said, had refused to pay for the damages. Trump was more distracted by the yacht that had washed ashore during the storm. Then, this happened:

https://twitter.com/JoePerticone/status/1042458427912597509

According to reports, when the president found out the man was not the owner, Trump smiled and said, “At least you got a nice boat out of the deal.” 

More Mother Jones reporting on Climate Desk

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate