Hot dogs and green peas: President Trump handed out ready meals in New Bern, North Carolina, as he turned consoler-in-chief on a one-day trip to areas affected by Hurricane Florence
Daily Mail: Hot dogs and hugs! Trump passes out hot meals at a hurricane aid center and promises that 'everybody' hit by Florence will be taken care of after 'epic' floods
* Trump shook hands with volunteers and passed out Styrofoam containers at a make-shift, drive-thru pick up at Temple Baptist Church in New Bern
* Drivers asked the president for hugs and told him that they were praying for him
* Trump is spending the day touring storm-ravaged areas in North Carolina in the wake of Hurricane Florence
* Meal center was his second of five stops of the day; his first was a briefing at an Air Force Base in Cherry Point
* 'Whatever we have to do at the federal level, we will do,' Trump promised at the base
President Trump hugged the afflicted of Hurricane Thursday as he toured areas affected by the storm and passed out hot meals to people forced out of their homes or struggling without power.
Trump shook hands with volunteers and passed out Styrofoam containers at a make-shift, drive-thru pick up, located in the parking lot of a local church, where the meal of the day was hot dogs and green peas, Fox News says.
At Temple Baptist Church in New Bern, drivers asked the president for hugs and told him that they were praying for him.
Trump is spending the day touring storm-ravaged areas in North Carolina in the wake of Hurricane Florence. The meal center was his second of five stops.
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WNU Editor: Two years ago I had to deal with my GF's flooded basement. Aside from fire, I learned first hand on how water can cause enormous damage. As for the victims of Hurricane Florence .... I certainly feel for them, and repairing all of this damage is going to take time and a lot of money. As for President Trump .... kudos to him for visiting these victims. These type of efforts are always appreciated. As for the press, I am not surprised that their focus is on mocking President Trump for this .... Trump is mocked for saying Hurricane Florence is 'one of the wettest we've seen, from the standpoint of water' as North Carolina governor warns evacuees not to return home yet as the floodwaters are STILL rising (Daily Mail/AP).
4 comments:
One of that orange dips$%t's golf courses is located on Lake Norman; that's why he's down there. A man of the people, what a guy.
Anon 241
What a loser comment you made, dude.
what do I expect of a leader?
-Vision
-effective Delegation
-Management by exception (That is a leader lets his subordinates run their department and only steps in if they mess up or start messing up.
I remember one O3 recruiting for O1's. He expected 8 to 10 hour days, If you spent longer, he suspected your were a eff-up and he did not want you. Different rules applied in the field but at home base that is what expected.
If Trump hits the links at the end of the day I say "And?"
He is moving faster than the bureaucrats and Congress.
Again what a loser comment.
Anon 2:41,
If this were about a golf course and it were in the hurricane disaster area, it is gone and cannot be salvaged. As such, there is no utility in visiting and even if he did the media would give us a point by point description of it. The insurance will cover the losses minus the deductible. The appropriate members of the Trump organization will handle this. There is no utility in a direct involvement by POTUS.
As to the large question of should he visit, there is no tangible upside benefit to the recovery effort combined with tangible costs and opportunity costs associated with the visit. POTUS's travel arrangement and those of his security team will need to be accommodated. Doing this in a disaster area is going to divert resources away from the recovery effort. I know, as we were going through Hurricane Harvey last year, we would not have wanted POTUS in our area for much this reason. Wit this said it seems likely that the diversion of resources to accomplish this will not significantly alter the relief and recovery efforts.
Also, it seems that properly trained personnel would be the best ones to distribute food at such a facility. It would seem they could do this more efficiently than POTUS. How long and how hard did he actually work? This sure looks suspiciously like a photo op to me. I'm sure for POTUS to do this for an hour or two would not have significantly undermined the relief efforts even if there is no upside to him doing this.
There seems no practical upside in a visit from POTUS. There is nothing he can do directly to contribute to this. With modern technology he and his executive can easily communicate with the appropriate personnel on the ground coordinating the effort in such a manner that he is not in the way and in ways that the effort can have maximum efficiency.
Not only is there no practical upside but this diverts his resources from areas where he can contribute to the nation's interests. As such, there are opportunity costs to such a visit without the corresponding benefits.
Perhaps the intangible benefits of having POTUS visit the region provide enough of a morale boost to those suffering that it outweighs the tangible costs. In contrast to having POTUS come to a warzone, the costs associated with the visit are probably not exhorbiant in terms of diverted resources and money spent. Also, the success of the efforts are not materially undermined and there seems no increased security risk as is the case if POTUS makes an appearance in a warzone.
So, maybe the argument could be made that in the right circumstances the morale boost to those suffering outweighs the tangible costs. Perhaps this particular visit is one of those cases.
Finally, what are the political ramifications? of going or not going? While he will face criticism for going, he will face much more criticism if he does not. Essentially he is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't but he is going to be damned harder if he doesn't. The fact that we expect POTUS to do photo ops serving food in a capacity that would be better performed by others who are trained in the process diverting his resources from other areas where he can add value to the nation is, in my opinion, yet another example of how unserious of a country we have become.
B Poster exploded a 50 megaton nuke on the comment thread.
His post was so long that almost no one wants to post after that LOL!
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