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Trump did some really weird things when he visited Puerto Rico

‘You really got hit. No question about it.’
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According to a few people, Donald Trump hasn’t really been nailing this whole president thing. Most recently, he took a trip to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico to assess the damage, help out a little and have his picture taken a lot. In the almost two and a half weeks since Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico, Trump has called the people there lazy, attacked the mayor of San Juan on Twitter and been pretty slow to act in general (it took him more than two weeks to even visit). Before he even boarded Air Force One on the way to the U.S. territory, we knew things were going to be uncomfortable at best. Turns out we were right. Things were uncomfortable. And very weird. Here’s what happened.

Las Vegas was a ‘miracle’

Didn’t we say he stuck his foot in his mouth before he even took off? Trump answered some press questions before boarding Air Force One and he seemed a little confused about the details of what happened in Las Vegas on Sunday night. He said that the police response was ‘in many ways a miracle.’ He later elaborated on that via Twitter, saying that it was the quick reaction time of the police that stopped the attack so quickly.

First, ‘miracle’ is not a great word to use when talking about a massacre, even if it’s in reference to the police response. Second, the SWAT team that broke into Stephen Paddock’s hotel room did not kill the shooter. He took his own life before they arrived.

He met the mayor… sort of

After he insulted her leadership and citizens on Twitter, you would expect Trump’s first face-to-face meeting with San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz to be awkward at best. It most certainly was, but not for the reason you might think. As they shook hands, Cruz said to Trump, ‘It’s not about politics,’ possibly offering an olive branch. Trump barely acknowledged her and immediately moved on. Awkward.

Katrina was a ‘real catastrophe’

The most basic rule when comforting a suffering person is to not belittle their grief. The last thing you should say is ‘I get that you have no food or water, but things could be so much worse.’ Trump didn’t say those words exactly, but he came pretty close when he insinuated that Puerto Rico’s situation isn’t a ‘real catastrophe’ by comparing the number of casualties to the number of lives lost to Hurricane Katrina. The death toll for Katrina was 1,833 and at the time of Trump’s comments, 16 people had died in Puerto Rico. That number has since risen to 34 (that’s just in the past 24 hours) and the longer it takes to get water and power to the population, the more likely it is that number will continue to grow.

Don’t forget your debt

This isn’t the first time that Trump has mentioned that Puerto Rico is about $70 billion in debt. That’s a lot, but shouldn’t we put money talk to the side and think about human life first? Nope. Trump made it clear that money is an issue when he said in a press conference, ‘I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, but you’ve thrown our budget a little out of whack.’ He then made it seem like the federal government would help Puerto Rico eliminate it’s debts. That would be incredible if he could actually pull that off. Republican officials say that’s  probably not going to happen though.

He got people the paper towels they needed

In possibly his weirdest act of the day, Trump launched rolls of paper towels to people waiting for supplies like he was handing out t-shirts at a rally. The crowd seemed to love it though.

All good except for all the ‘fake news’

Once he got home, Trump was sure to let everyone know (via Twitter, of course) how well he thought the trip went.

So, in conclusion