The post-disaster politicking got under way in earnest on Friday, as Donald Trump appeared in flood-stricken Louisiana to give his image a presidential burnish, and as the White House announced Barack Obama would tour the area next Tuesday.
A day earlier Louisiana’s governor, John Bel Edwards, had warned Trump not to show up in Louisiana “for a photo op”. Instead, he said, Trump should volunteer and make donations.
Edwards also defended the delayed visit by Obama, who has come under heavy criticism locally for not interrupting his vacation to come tour the disaster area.
The photo opportunity is a time-honored political maneuver after a natural disaster, and Trump put his own spin on it, traveling with an 18-wheel transfer truck full of supplies to hand out to crowds.
Wherever he went, he created his own television-ready crowds. In St Amant, one of the hardest-hit areas between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Trump’s convoy set up in a parking lot, and droves of people turned out to watch him hand out water bottles and diapers. – READ MORE
