CRISIS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump will fly to Texas on Tuesday [8-29-17], the White House said, where he will see firsthand the damage from a deadly tropical storm that has flooded Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city.
Mr. Trump returned to the White House on Sunday afternoon after monitoring the storm from the presidential retreat in Camp David. Tropical storm Harvey poses a test of his ability to manage a crisis involving multiple government agencies and offer reassurance to a state that will take years to recover from the damage.
A dozen years ago, Hurricane Katrina marked a turning point in then-President George W. Bush’s tenure, raising doubts about the White House’s competence as Louisiana residents endured what a U.S. House after-action report would call a ‘failure at all levels of government.’…
Using his Twitter feed, Mr. Trump portrayed the response to Harvey as both coordinated and effective, while also remarking on the storm’s severity…
The White House released a picture of Mr. Trump taking part in the meeting. He is shown sitting at a conference table, a red ‘USA’ hat pulled low over his forehead.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott praised the administration’s early response to the disaster, saying that the federal government has provided everything his state has asked for so far.”
-Peter Nicolas and Yuka Hayashi, “Trump Praises Government’s Harvey Relief Efforts,” The Wall Street Journal online, Aug. 27, 2017 06:13pm