President Trump and First Lady Melania visited victims of Hurricane Harvey on Saturday in Houston, Texas, since the storm devastated the state. This is the first major natural disaster of the Trump Presidency since assuming office.
President Trump and First Lady Melania arriving in Houston on a visit to meet with victims and First Responders of Hurricane Harvey. Credit: Reuters
The Trumps met with victims and their families at NRG Stadium in Houston, where they shook hands, gave out meal boxes and engaged with evacuees.
In a widely-watched televised visit, the President assumed the role of “Comforter-In-Chief” as he hugged, kissed and lifted children who seemed to relate better with him. He also played and sat with them at the kids’ zone at the NRG Centre, a Houston facility were evacuees and their families are temporarilyy housed.
First Lady Melania Trump looks on as President Trump chats with kids at NRG Centre in Houston, Texas on Saturday, 2 September 2017. Credit: AP
President Trump also thanked the First Responders, comforted victims, served meals and took selfies with some, if not most of the evacuees.
For someone who is often accused of being out-of-touch with ordinary Americans and labelled a “racist” by many in the mainstream media, the President appeared more at ease with evacuees at the shelter, most of whom were Black-Americans as he engaged in light conversations and took selfies with them.
“It had been a wonderful thing, said the President in reference to his meeting with the victims amidst shouts of “Thank you, sir” from the crowds around him.
President Trump and the First Lady are welcomed by residents at a Houston neighbourhood whose water has since receded and where they visited. on Saturday 2 September, 2017. Credit: AP
The President also visited a neighborhood where he greeted residents and praised them for doing a “fantastic job holding it together.” Him and the First Lady visited a local church in Pearland where they helped load half a dozen cars with boxes of supplies for the victims, with the President saying the work was a “good exercise.”
The President and First Lady took time to hand out meals at NRG Centre where he also posed for selfies with evacuees. Credit: AFP/Getty Images
The visit to Houston showed a softer, more empathetic and human side of President Trump, what he is often accused of lacking. His first visit to hurricane devastated Texas was in Corpus Christi and Austin where he met with Cabinet members, state and local leaders as well as First Responders whose task is dealing with logistics of government responses.
The President seemed to be more at ease with kids and they seem to respond back to him in kind- as seen here at the NRG Centre in Houston, Texas on Saturday, 2 September 2017. Credit: AP
“It raises the morale,” said Kevin Jason Hipolito, a self-identified Democrat and evacuee at the NRG Centre. “When he went to Corpus I was like, ‘Man he just forgot about us.’ This shows a lot of support. It perks up morale.”
President Trump’s visit to Houston on Saturday raised moral among locals , earning him praise even from some of his most fiercest critics and detractor who never see anything good from this President regardless of what he does or says.
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