HURRICANE/POLLS/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “President Donald Trump was hunkering in Washington on Thursday [9-13-18] as winds from Hurricane Florence began lashing the Carolina coast, his mind split between emergency preparations, long-simmering grievances over the Russia investigation and criticism of a lackluster approach to last year’s storms. Trump, beleaguered and down in the polls, was hoping to regain an air of confident leadership this week by rendering himself the public face of the response to the looming hurricane, which is due to make landfall early Friday [9-14-18]. To those ends, the President was spending Thursday taking meetings with top emergency management officials, according to aides. Just before 5 p.m. he was seen departing the Eisenhower Executive Office Building following a hurricane briefing from national security officials, accompanied by Vice President Mike Pence and national security adviser John Bolton. He canceled planned campaign rallies in Missouri and Mississippi to tend to the disaster. And he issued a string of messages warning residents of the Carolinas to follow evacuation orders.”
–Kevin Liptak, “Trump facing Florence with praise and pique,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, September 13, 2018 5:35 pm