Talk about bad optics. Donald Trump was on the golf course today. It’s the 210th golf outing of his presidency. According to the White House pool report, Trump was on the links at 10:30 this morning at his course in Sterling, Va.
Meanwhile, many victims of Hurricane Michael in the Florida Panhandle don’t have food, water or electricity.
Trump is golfing today, per pool report.
Really am a bit surprised by this. He's petrified of getting tarred as uncaring about a Hurricane. And yet has spent the past few days at campaign rallies, with Kanye, and now this.
— Sam Stein (@samstein) October 14, 2018
The situation on the ground in the Florida Panhandle is grim. The Daily Beast reports from Panama City, Florida that residents are angry:
Down the street, Barbara Sanders stood outside her daughter’s unit, where she had come to stay during the hurricane.
“We’re not getting any help,” she said. “We need food. It’s just crazy.”
Sanders said that not a single relief agency had come by to check on them. Only the police had come and it was to tell everyone to leave. “They told us there’s nothing they can do and it’s gonna take a long time to rebuild,” Sanders said.
The western part of Florida’s Panhandle is traditionally the most conservative part of the state. Trump’s response to this storm though could have an impact on some voters there. Try telling that to Trump. No doubt he will give himself an A when he grades his response to storm victims (and everything else).
It’s just a little over three weeks before we know if this Trump election strategy has worked. It is a strategy of one. Trump alone thinks he can win the midterms for the GOP. It’s why he’s suddenly been available to the media that was only yesterday “fake.” Funny how that works.
Expect @realDonaldTrump to pull out many of his old chestnuts in the coming weeks calculated to outrage and provoke his opponents, set cable afire and gin up his base. Immigration, kneeling, etc.
He is Pavlov. We are the dogs.— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) October 13, 2018
But there’s a problem. Take the campaign rallies, please! They’ve become predictable and boring. The hallmarks of the 2016 Trump campaign are now just freewheeling, unscripted lie-fests, where exaggeration knows no bounds.
These Trump rallies are becoming non-events which is something that should be worry Trump about 2020
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) October 13, 2018
Yet again, as he's done at past rallies, Trump tells his KY crowd that a huge throng — 25,000 to 35,000 people — are outside because they couldn't get in the packed house, & there are "movie screens" set up so they can watch the rally.
None of that is true.— Jackie Calmes (@jackiekcalmes) October 13, 2018