News
Conrad Duncan
Aug 30, 2019
These two tweets show Donald Trump’s dramatically different responses to extreme storms in Puerto Rico and Florida.
Hurricane Dorian is expected to become an “extremely dangerous” storm by the time it hits the US mainland at the weekend, according to the National Hurricane Centre.
Although the storm was originally predicted to hit Puerto Rico – which was devastated by Hurricane Maria in 2017 – it has since moved towards Florida, potentially endangering Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.
When Dorian was heading towards Puerto Rico, this is how Trump responded:
But once it moved towards Florida, he took on a much more professional tone:
With Puerto Rico, Trump appeared to be complaining about how much money the hurricane was going to cost his administration, while with Florida, he urged people to "be prepared" and stay safe.
The president also clashed with Puerto Rico this week by insulting San Juan’s mayor and calling the US territory “one of the most corrupt places on earth”.
The contrast was not lost on some journalists covering US politics.
To be fair to Trump, he did send a tweet on Thursday saying it was a “great result” that Hurricane Dorian was missing Puerto Rico and thanked the work of FEMA in preparing for the storm.
But we would be setting the bar very low if we praised him for that.
In other Hurricane Dorian news, Canada's former PM Kim Campbell has said she is "rooting for a direct hit on Mar-a-Lago" from the storm...
She's probably going to regret saying that by Sunday.
More: Trump Jr tried to mock Bernie Sanders' masculinity and people reminded him who his father is
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