President Trump praises Texas Gov. Greg Abbot:”You have been terrific, and you have been my friend for a long time.” https://t.co/yFNhqo52rq
— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) August 29, 2017
After news broke that President Trump would be traveling to Texas during Tropical Storm Harvey, he tweeted, “HISTORIC rainfall in Houston, and all over Texas. Floods are unprecedented, and more rain coming. Spirit of the people is incredible.Thanks!”
The “Thanks!” raised a few eyebrows, given the destruction that had already occurred. Now with even more damage and loss of life, and more coming, President Trump’s tone continues to be odd as witnessed by comments he made after landing in Corpus Cristi. At one point, while praising Texas governor Greg Abbott, Trump said this:
“We want to do it better than ever before, we want to be looked at in five years, in ten years from now as ‘this is the way to do it.’ This was of epic proportion, nobody’s ever seen anything like this. I just want to say that working with the governor and his entire team has been an honor for us.”
After thanking Abbott and really shaking his hand, Trump did that thing he does where he rattles off something or other that sounds strange. He grinned while stating, “We won’t say congratulations, we don’t want to do that. We’ll congratulate each other when it’s all finished. But, you have been terrific. You have been terrific, and you have been my friend for a long time.”
For what it’s worth, Abbott didn’t endorse Donald Trump for president until all of the other Republican hopefuls had dropped out of the race.
Also oddly, Trump thanked FEMA head Brock Long while claiming how he’s “become very famous on television.”
And then he greeted supporters in Corpus Christi: “What a crowd! What a turnout!”
Watch Trump’s full comments to Abbott below.
(Via NBC News)