President Barack Obama’s day trip to tour flood damage in Louisiana is “too little, too late,” Donald Trump wrote on Twitter Tuesday afternoon.
“President Obama should have gone to Louisiana days ago, instead of golfing,” the Republican presidential nominee wrote. “Too little, too late!”
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Obama flew to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Wednesday to visit a region devastated by heavy rain and flooding earlier this month. In a release issued late last week, the American Red Cross said the flooding in Louisiana is the worst natural disaster in the U.S. since superstorm Sandy and that the relief effort will cost at least $30 billion.
Accompanied by his running mate Mike Pence, Trump himself visited Baton Rouge and the surrounding area last Friday, helping unload supplies and meeting with law enforcement officials for a briefing. Obama was still on his annual Massachusetts vacation at the time, prompting Trump to take a shot at the president’s near-daily golf games.
“The president says he doesn’t want to come, he is trying to get out of a golf game,” Trump told volunteers last Friday at a church north of Baton Rouge, according to a report from ABC News. “He will never be under par.”
The White House said Obama received regular briefings on the flooding even while on vacation. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, said he had no problem with Obama’s decision to delay a visit to the flood area. A presidential visit and the accompanying motorcade, Edwards said last Thursday, would pull first responders away from relief efforts, put a strain on law enforcement and force road closures.
“I think the president is used to people trying to score political points even in situations where they shouldn’t. The president certainly believes this is the kind of situation where…we’re talking about lives lost,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said during a press gaggle aboard Air Force One en route to Baton Rouge. “We’re talking about a community being upended. And [he believes] that it’s an appropriate time to put politics aside, and actually focus on our responsibilities as Americans.”
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/trump-tweet-obama-louisiana-227317#ixzz4IBrJ1SZx