Trump Comforts Hurricane Survivors With His Usual Lies And Mendacious Bullsh*t
No paper towels thrown at faces yet, but give him time.
On Monday, Donald Trump draped one of his ill-fitting suits over his dumpy, weak shoulders — one of those get-ups that makes him look like an 80-year-man playing dress-up in his dad’s closet — and he waddled to Valdosta, Georgia, to lie to hurricane survivors and just in general be a menace to humanity.
He stood in front of Franklin Graham, because when you’ve just been through a crisis, you know who you want to see? That snake oil fascist.
“Nobody thought” a hurricane would be happening in late September, at the very height of the hurricane season, said the uneducated clown who once drew dicks on hurricane maps as president, to make the forecasts say what he wanted them to say.
And that was the tip of the iceberg of Trump’s malevolent ignorance and lying. We’re used to how breathtakingly stupid he is, and we’re used to his dishonesty, but it’s worth pointing out how vile it is how he inserts himself in moments like these, when people in so many states are trying to pick up the pieces, including some of his own voters, descending on them like a bird of prey who just happens to be an adjudicated rapist.
It’s just surprising he didn’t throw paper towels at their faces. Yet.
Instead of paper towels, again, he’s been like a hype man shooting lies out of a T-shirt cannon.
On Truth Social, his fake Twitter knock-off site, Trump retweeted the picture of Vice President Kamala Harris on the plane getting FEMA briefings and speaking to governors, accusing her of staging it. “They sacrificed Americans to an Open Border, and now, they have left Americans to drown in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and elsewhere in the South.”
In another, he said he “[doesn’t] like the reports that I’m getting about the Federal Government, and the Democrat Governor of the State, going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.” (Western North Carolina is a lot of red, yes, but with some incredibly blue spots like Asheville and the college towns.) We don’t know if he was hallucinating those reports or just making them up like a typical lying loser. When NBC News’s Garrett Haake tried to ask him where the hell he was getting that information, he babbled “Just take a look,” like those words meant anything.
During his photo-op visit with the charlatan Franklin Graham — his Samaritan’s Purse charity brought along disaster supplies and whatever else they bring to Trump photo-ops, maybe a conestoga wagon full of Bibles or something, we don’t fucking know — Trump appeared to invent a lie on the spot about Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp being unable to get in touch with President Joe Biden.
“I guess they’re not being responsive, the federal government is not being responsive,” he continued. “But they’re having a very hard time getting the, getting the president on the phone. He won’t get on and of course the vice president, she’s out someplace campaigning, looking for money. So they got to be, they have to be focused over here. It’s too big, this is a really bad one. The governor is doing a good job, but he’s having a hard time getting the president on the phone. They’re being very non-responsive.”
Of course, Brian Kemp had already done this press conference where he talked about how helpful Biden has been, how he invited him to call him personally, and how appreciative he was of that:
“The president just called me yesterday afternoon, I missed him, and I called him right back. And he just said ‘Hey, what do you need?’ And I told him, we got what we need, we’ll work through the federal process. He offered that if there’s other things we need, just to call him directly, which I appreciate that.”
Kemp added that “we’ve had FEMA embedded with us since a day or two before the storm.” You know, because FEMA started responding before the storm hit.
Trump further lied and claimed that Biden has been “sleeping” through this crisis, and that Kamala Harris has been “out somewhere campaigning, looking for money.” We’re not sure if she was at a FEMA briefing at that exact time, but it was pretty close, having canceled campaign events to head back to Washington. (You know, like presidents do.)
Here’s a news report from yesterday featuring Harris speaking at FEMA headquarters:
The vice president briefed the press, thanking FEMA personnel personally for their sacrifices, and explained she’s been in contact with Governor Kemp, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, and many other local officials. She said she “[plans] to be on the ground as soon as possible, but as soon as possible without disrupting any emergency response operations, because that must be the highest priority and the first order of business.” It was a long update, a kind update, and a thorough update from the vice president.
After she was done speaking, she turned again to the FEMA staff to spend more time thanking them and encouraging them in the selfless work they’re doing. “You guys are the best of anything we can hope for in our country,” she said.
But she didn’t have any of Billy Graham’s grifting offspring with her, so it probably doesn’t count.
Donald Trump has indeed been the first presidential candidate on the ground in Hurricane Helene’s aftermath, inserting his unwanted body exactly where it isn’t needed. President Biden, like Harris, has made clear that he’s not going to show up until they can do so without diverting resources needed by emergency responders. He’s now planning a briefing in Raleigh and an aerial tour of Asheville later this week.
President Biden responded to Trump’s lies about him sleeping on the job, and he was pissed.
“He’s lying. And the governor told me he was lying. I’ve spoken to the governor, I’ve spent time with him, and he told me he was lying. I don’t know why he does this. And the reason I get so angry about it, I don’t care about what he says about me, I care what he communicates to the people that are in need, he implies that we’re not doing everything possible. We are.”
As Meidas+ notes, Trump’s initial response to this storm, as with so many things, was “You’ll be OK.” He said it — surprise — during a campaign stop. In Puerto Rico, he told survivors to “Have a good time.” Also in Houston, after Hurricane Florence.
He also called Hurricane Florence “one of the wettest we’ve ever seen from the standpoint of water.” Can’t wait to hear more of his mindfuckingly stupid thoughts on Helene.
You know, whenever he manages to take a break from being literally Jesus while Joe Biden and Kamala Harris drink margaritas.
You betcha.
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Trump's brain is one of the wettest we’ve ever seen, from the standpoint of water.
Look, maybe Trump is lying flat out to disaster survivors and telling them their government has abandoned them.
All's fair in politics, and once the power comes back, they can google it and see whether it was true or not. No harm done!