President Donald J. Trump has been on a roll since Tuesday’s elections, his tantrums somehow growing even louder and even more frequent. He’s not even dialing it down on weekends. While you were trying to chill on Saturday, the commander-in-chief began his day by addressing the fires consuming parts of California, which have so far killed nine people and forced a quarter of a million people from their homes. Was the president, as they say, “presidential” about it? If you think scaring the hell out of people who are already running for their lives is presidential, then yes — yes, he was.
Tweeting from Paris, where he was skipping a WWI ceremony because it was raining outside, Trump began his day by putting these words together:
There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!
It’s not clear whether the president did some deep research into whether institutional malfeasance amplified the fires or if he was just acting like a loudmouth with the world’s biggest soapbox. It’s also not 100% obvious if he was simply angry that California went predictably blue in an election that saw Democrats take over the House of Representatives.
Either way, the president once again — and not for the only time Saturday — inspired a wrath of angry tweets sent in his direction. One of them, as noted by HuffPo, was from Katy Perry.
This is an absolutely heartless response. There aren’t even politics involved. Just good American families losing their homes as you tweet, evacuating into shelters. https://t.co/DJ4PN26bLZ
— KATY PERRY (@katyperry) November 10, 2018
Calling his response “heartless,” the musician responded with ire she usually reserves for Taylor Swift, multiplied untold times, then directed it at the most powerful man in the known universe.
Perry wasn’t the only music god who called out the president. Sir Rod Stewart got in a good one, too.
Mr. President, while people’s homes are burning, while lives are being lost & while firefighters are risking their lives, California needs words of support & encouragement, not threats or finger pointing & accusations. Where is Winston Churchill when you need him?
— Sir Rod Stewart (@rodstewart) November 10, 2018
Later in the day, Trump again tweeted about the California fires, but his latest lacked the hostility and menace of his earlier one.
More than 4,000 are fighting the Camp and Woolsey Fires in California that have burned over 170,000 acres. Our hearts are with those fighting the fires, the 52,000 who have evacuated, and the families of the 11 who have died. The destruction is catastrophic. God Bless them all.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 10, 2018
These California fires are expanding very, very quickly (in some cases 80-100 acres a minute). If people don’t evacuate quickly, they risk being overtaken by the fire. Please listen to evacuation orders from State and local officials!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 10, 2018
Did the people who sang “I Kissed a Girl” and “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” actually make a dent in his brain? Who knows! Whatever the case, President Trump certainly didn’t apologize for his previous remarks, nor did he backtrack.
Besides, the president also had other fish of about the same size to fry. Remember when we mentioned he skipped a ceremony? It was to commemorate the end of World War I, and it was held at the Aisne-Marne Cemetery in Northern France — the resting place for 1,800 American soldiers killed in the battle of Belleau Wood. But it lightly rained, and Trump didn’t go, with a statement citing “scheduling and logistical difficulties caused by the weather.”
And so Trump was called out, on a completely different matter, by no less than a grandson of Winston Churchill himself. Nicholas Soames, a member of British Parliament, called Donald Trump “pathetic.”
They died with their face to the foe and that pathetic inadequate @realDonaldTrump couldn’t even defy the weather to pay his respects to The Fallen #hesnotfittorepresenthisgreatcountry
— Nicholas Soames (@NSoames) November 10, 2018
How’s your Saturday going?
(Via HuffPost)