Trump Expected to Avoid Houston During Texas Visit on Tuesday

Trump Expected to Avoid Houston During Texas Visit on Tuesday

President Donald Trump is heading to Texas on Tuesday to display the federal government's support for areas hit by Hurricane Harvey, but Houston, which is underwater and is expecting even more rain, won’t be on his itinerary.

Trump "will not be coming to the Houston area, which is the most, still danger-prone area," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told Fox News Channel Monday.

"Instead, it will be closer to where the hurricane came across shore, which is closer to the Corpus Christi or San Antonio area," Abbott said in response to questions about whether, with up to two more feet of rain still expected in the Houston area, it would be a good time for the president to visit.

 First Lady Melania Trump will accompany her husband on the visit, her communications director tweeted Monday.

The White House has not yet announced the president's itinerary.

In planning the trip, Trump faces the challenge of displaying his support and easing the region’s recovery — but without getting in the way of local officials who are both leading recuperation efforts and preparing for more bad weather.

That test is no small feat for a president who loves the spotlight.

Trump indicated on Sunday he understood some of the obstacles, tweeting that he would visit the state "as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption," adding that "the focus must be life and safety."

Ahead of the visit, Trump and vice president Mike Pence were taking actions from Washington, D.C.. to help the region.

Trump approved Louisiana's request for a federal emergency declaration Monday morning, while Pence, in an interview with Houston radio station KTRH, reassured the people of Texas that Americans are with them and will be there to help rebuild.

A visit by Trump could create a logistical nightmare, even if it took place away from storm-hit Houston, with state and federal officials needing to devote all their attention to the submerged metropolis, where 20 more inches of rain were expected.

In addition, Harvey, now a tropical storm with winds about 30 to 40 mph, could also come back and hit land again, creating more headaches.

The storm is currently about 15 miles off the middle of the Texas coast and is slowly moving back toward coastal waters. It is expected to remain offshore through Tuesday before resurging in the Gulf of Mexico and turning back north toward southeast Texas on Wednesday.

How Trump handles the aftermath of Harvey — the first natural disaster he's faced in the Oval Office — could have lasting impact on his popularity and on the public’s perception of the president's competence.

His two predecessors faced very different outcomes in their immediate responses to hurricanes.

George W. Bush, whose bungled and slow response to Hurricane Katrina is cited by historians as one of the most worst presidential responses to a natural disaster, was in Air Force One when he first surveyed the wreckage of the 2005 superstorm four days after it hit the Gulf Coast.

Bush, who’d been on vacation at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., was returning to Washington in Air Force One, which flew low over the Gulf Coast so he could see the devastation. The photos of a somber-looking Bush in his plane, however, backfired, creating the perception almost immediately that he was distant and detached from the horror on the ground.

With Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Barack Obama embarked on a helicopter inspection over New Jersey on Oct. 31, two days after the storm hit, and was greeted enthusiastically by Republican Gov. Chris Christie.

Obama also took an aerial tour of Queens, Staten Island and other areas hit in New York two weeks later on Nov. 15.

Trump, for his part, faces the added challenge of getting lawmakers to greenlight billions of dollars for the recovery in Texas, due to the skirmishes resulting from a Sept. 30 deadline to continue funding the federal government.

Trump last week threatened to let the federal government shut down if he doesn’t get his long-promised border wall funded.

Source: CBNNews.com

Flooded Houston Braces for More Rain as Harvey Rescues Continue

HOUSTON — Heavy rains returned with a fury Monday morning as up to 20 more inches was predicted to deluge the region following a weekend of widespread flooding and more than 1,000 rescues in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.

The catastrophic storm is expected to send more than 30,000 people into temporary shelters and prompt about 450,000 people to file for disaster aid, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Monday.

"This is a landmark event for Texas," Brock Long, FEMA's administrator, told reporters. "Texas has never seen an event like this." 

He added that the situation remains a rescue operation, with 30 to 50 counties in Texas potentially affected by the storm. Homeland Security is sending personnel to the state to help bolster security forces there.

"Hurricane force winds have diminished, but we are still not out of the woods," added Elaine Duke, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

The Latest on the Storm

• Harvey, now a tropical storm with winds of about 30 to 40 mph, is about 25 miles off the middle of the Texas coast and is slowly moving back toward coastal waters. It is expected to remain offshore through Tuesday before resurging in the Gulf of Mexico and turning back north toward southeast Texas on Wednesday.
• Bands of heavy rain are expected to persist over the next several days, with parts of Texas and Louisiana facing record rainfall through at least Labor Day weekend, forecasters say.
• Flash flood warnings remain in effect for parts of the Houston region through Tuesday morning, and more than 290,000 customers are without power.
• The National Weather Service warns conditions are "somewhat favorable" for tornadoes.

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Harvey has been blamed for at least two deaths in Texas, including one person who was found drowned inside a vehicle, officials said.

Abandoned cars littered roadways in and around Houston. Drivers attempted to leave Houston via Interstate 45, which cuts through the city and stretches south toward the Gulf of Mexico. The highway was still passable, although some area roads were completely swamped by flooding and the tops of traffic lights peeked out from above the water.

The Army Corps of Engineers announced early Monday that it had begun releasing water from both major Houston-area dams — something that has never been done before. That decision came after levels in the Barker and Addicks reservoirs "increased dramatically," by more than six inches per hour. Earlier Sunday, officials had said they did not plan to open the Barker dam until 11 a.m. on Wednesday.

“If we don’t begin releasing now, the volume of uncontrolled water around the dams will be higher and have a greater impact on the surrounding communities,” the Corps' Col. Lars Zetterstrom said.

Opening the reservoirs will increase water levels in downtown Houston.

As many has 40 inches of rain have fallen on areas near the country's fourth-largest city in 24 hours as of Sunday night, the NWS said. And 15 to 25 more inches of rain could fall on a swath of the upper Texas coast to Lafayette, Louisiana, by Friday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the wettest tropical storm in U.S. history, Hurricane Hiki, yielded more than 52 inches of rain on Hawaii in 1950.

Rivers, meanwhile, are expected to crest later this week, only exacerbating the dire situation.

"Results could be devastating if any of these rains fall where catastrophic flooding has already occurred," the NWS warned.

More than 290,000 customers in the region were without power as at 5:30 a.m. ET Monday, utility companies said.

Dallas was preparing to open its "Mega Shelter" in the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center to handle a stream of people displaced from Houston and other coastal areas. Already early Monday, people were huddled outside wearing American Red Cross blankets. The city plans to have the convention center ready to accommodate 5,000 people by Tuesday morning, reported NBC Dallas-Fort Worth.

Harvey weakened to a tropical storm since making landfall in Rockport, Texas, on Friday, but still posed a danger of devastating floods. Around 250 roads and highways in the state have been closed by floodwaters, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said.

"People need to know that there are large and growing rescue teams that will be working around the clock to evacuate people in need," Abbott said on MSNBC, adding that 3,000 members of the National Guard had been activated.

Forecasters warned that the flooding in Texas could be historic.

The National Weather Service said average rainfall amounts in Harris County had already eclipsed the amounts seen in the devastating Tropical Storm Allison in 2001 — and in about half the time.

A Houston woman whose home flooded early Sunday said the water began to build at 3 a.m. and did not stop. "I was thinking of writing my Social Security number on my arm," she told MSNBC.

Thousands of calls for help came in to first responders, and the city's mayor pleaded with people to call 911 only in life-threatening emergencies.

Houston police on Sunday night issued a call for boat owners to volunteer.

The U.S. Coast Guard sent assets from as far away as Maine and California to help, Vice Adm. Karl Schultz said. Helicopters and numerous boat crews were being used to assist in rescues, he said.

People were rescued from "pretty much everywhere," said Cmdr. Jim Spitler, commanding officer of Air Station Houston. "Most of them are rooftops, but they've been on top of cars, they’ve been on bridges, they’ve been in their attics."

He repeated warnings from authorities not to retreat to attics amid rising water, because people can be trapped and it makes rescue difficult, and he encouraged people who need help to mark their roofs.

Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said the department has conducted about 2,000 rescue missions and has about 230 left. With a lull in the rain earlier Monday, he told MSNBC that crews will also focus on homes that are flooded to the rooftops.

The National Hurricane Center said the Houston area could see a total of 50 inches of rain. The storm was causing "unprecedented flooding" in southeastern Texas, it added.

"This is a life-threatening situation," said Michael Palmer, lead meteorologist for The Weather Channel.

As of early Monday, Harvey was about 25 miles northeast of Port O'Connor, located on the middle Texas coast, with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph, the hurricane center said. The center of the storm was moving at about 3 mph off the middle Texas coast, and was set to meander just offshore through Tuesday before heading back north toward land.

President Donald Trump will travel to Texas on Tuesday. He signed a disaster declaration to help get federal funds to stricken areas. Abbott said Sunday that he expanded an initial request to 18 counties, including Harris County, where Houston is located, and that it had been approved.

Abbott praised the White House response and said he had spoken with Trump personally.

Long said Sunday that the recovery effort would take years.

"This is a long game. It's going to take a long time to heal," Abbott added. He called Harvey "a horrible tragedy."

Harvey caused damage along the Texas Gulf coast and inland, and the city of Rockport north of Corpus Christi was hit hard, officials said. Port Aransas was reportedly without power, water and telephone service, and every business in town was damaged.

Flood watches from San Antonio to Lafayette, Louisiana, covered 13 million people and were expected to be in place through midweek.

Federal officials said they would be planning for recovery efforts later in the week.

When Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, about 30,000 people unable to flee New Orleans were sheltered in the Louisiana Superdome. Nearly 74,000 families that were displaced were provided temporary housing through FEMA.

Katrina caused an estimated $81 billion in property damages and required FEMA to help more than 738,000 individuals and households.

Source: NBC News

President Trump’s son,Barron Trump reportedly lost his leg after an explosion

Reportedly,the son of the President of the United States,Donald Trump has lost his right leg after an explosion happened in a mall he was shopping.

Barron Trump went in a City Mall in Washington where according to the sayings of his father and his men,he was supposed to buy himself some things.According to witnesses,on the second floor of the shopping center,a planted bomb exploded,very close to Barron and his security.One of the security guards has died,while two others are injured.Barron was also seriously injured,and in the accident according to some of the witnesses,he lost his leg.The ambulance came right away and saved his life,but we don’t know his condition yet. Prayers go to the presidental family,we hope that everything will be alright!

Donald Trump Has No Grasp Of What It Means To Be President

U-turns, self-regard and equivocation are not what it takes

DEFENDERS of President Donald Trump offer two arguments in his favour—that he is a businessman who will curb the excesses of the state; and that he will help America stand tall again by demolishing the politically correct taboos of left-leaning, establishment elites. From the start, these arguments looked like wishful thinking. After Mr Trump’s press conference in New York on August 15th they lie in ruins.

The unscripted remarks were his third attempt to deal with violent clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend. In them the president stepped back from Monday’s—scripted—condemnation of the white supremacists who had marched to protest against the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, a Confederate general, and fought with counter-demonstrators, including some from the left. In New York, as his new chief of staff looked on dejected, Mr Trump let rip, stressing once again that there was blame “on both sides”. He left no doubt which of those sides lies closer to his heart.

Mr Trump is not a white supremacist. He repeated his criticism of neo-Nazis and spoke out against the murder of Heather Heyer (see our Obituary). Even so, his unsteady response contains a terrible message for Americans. Far from being the saviour of the Republic, their president is politically inept, morally barren and temperamentally unfit for office.

Self-harm

Start with the ineptness. In last year’s presidential election Mr Trump campaigned against the political class to devastating effect. Yet this week he has bungled the simplest of political tests: finding a way to condemn Nazis. Having equivocated at his first press conference on Saturday, Mr Trump said what was needed on Monday and then undid all his good work on Tuesday—briefly uniting Fox News and Mother Jones in their criticism, surely a first. As business leaders started to resign en masse from his advisory panels (see article), the White House disbanded them. Mr Trump did, however, earn the endorsement of David Duke, a former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

The extreme right will stage more protests across America. Mr Trump has complicated the task of containing their marches and keeping the peace. The harm will spill over into the rest of his agenda, too. His latest press conference was supposed to be about his plans to improve America’s infrastructure, which will require the support of Democrats. He needlessly set back those efforts, as he has so often in the past. “Infrastructure week” in June was drowned out by an investigation into Russian meddling in the election—an investigation Mr Trump helped bring about by firing the director of the FBI in a fit of pique. Likewise, repealing Obamacare collapsed partly because he lacked the knowledge and charisma to win over rebel Republicans. He reacted to that setback by belittling the leader of the Senate Republicans, whose help he needs to pass legislation. So much for getting things done.

Mr Trump’s inept politics stem from a moral failure. Some counter-demonstrators were indeed violent, and Mr Trump could have included harsh words against them somewhere in his remarks. But to equate the protest and the counter-protest reveals his shallowness. Video footage shows marchers carrying fascist banners, waving torches, brandishing sticks and shields, chanting “Jews will not replace us”. Footage of the counter-demonstration mostly shows average citizens shouting down their opponents. And they were right to do so: white supremacists and neo-Nazis yearn for a society based on race, which America fought a world war to prevent. Mr Trump’s seemingly heartfelt defence of those marching to defend Confederate statues spoke to the degree to which white grievance and angry, sour nostalgia is part of his world view.

At the root of it all is Mr Trump’s temperament. In difficult times a president has a duty to unite the nation. Mr Trump tried in Monday’s press conference, but could not sustain the effort for even 24 hours because he cannot get beyond himself. A president needs to rise above the point-scoring and to act in the national interest. Mr Trump cannot see beyond the latest slight. Instead of grasping that his job is to honour the office he inherited, Mr Trump is bothered only about honouring himself and taking credit for his supposed achievements.

Presidents have come in many forms and still commanded the office. Ronald Reagan had a moral compass and the self-knowledge to delegate political tactics. LBJ was a difficult man but had the skill to accomplish much that was good. Mr Trump has neither skill nor self-knowledge, and this week showed that he does not have the character to change.

This is a dangerous moment. America is cleft in two. After threatening nuclear war with North Korea, musing about invading Venezuela and equivocating over Charlottesville, Mr Trump still has the support of four-fifths of Republican voters. Such popularity makes it all the harder for the country to unite.

This leads to the question of how Republicans in public life should treat Mr Trump. Those in the administration face a hard choice. Some will feel tempted to resign. But his advisers, particularly the three generals sitting at the top of the Pentagon, the National Security Council and as Mr Trump’s chief of staff, are better placed than anyone to curb the worst instincts of their commander-in-chief.

An Oval Office-shaped hole

For Republicans in Congress the choice should be clearer. Many held their noses and backed Mr Trump because they thought he would advance their agenda. That deal has not paid off. Mr Trump is not a Republican, but the solo star of his own drama. By tying their fate to his, they are harming their country and their party. His boorish attempts at plain speaking serve only to poison national life. Any gains from economic reform—and the booming stockmarket and low unemployment owe more to the global economy, tech firms and dollar weakness than to him—will come at an unacceptable price.

Republicans can curb Mr Trump if they choose to. Rather than indulging his outrages in the hope that something good will come of it, they must condemn them. The best of them did so this week. Others should follow.

Source: Economist.com

Trump Calls Removal Of Confederate Monuments 'So Foolish'

Bridgewater, New Jersey (CNN)President Donald Trump on Thursday denounced the removal of monuments to Confederate figures as "sad" and "so foolish," days after white supremacists and neo-Nazis took to Charlottesville, Virginia, to violently protest the planned removal of a statue of the Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

"Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments," Trump said in a series of tweets. "You can't change history, but you can learn from it."

Trump's tweets came as he continued to face criticism for comments he made on Tuesday in which he blamed "both sides" of the Charlottesville protests -- the white supremacists and those protesting against them -- for the violence that took hold of that small Virginia city. While Trump condemned the neo-Nazi and white supremacists who protested, he insisted there were "very fine people" among those protesting the removal of Lee's statue in Charlottesville.

Echoing his comments on Tuesday, Trump tweeted Thursday that the removal of Confederate statues could lead to the removal of monuments to the US's founding fathers.

"Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson - who's next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish!" Trump tweeted. "Also the beauty that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks will be greatly missed and never able to be comparably replaced!"

Trump's decision to side with those opposed to removing Confederate monuments -- even days after white supremacists and neo-Nazis protested the same cause -- signaled that he was increasingly confident that he had reacted appropriately in a way that would bolster his standing with his core supporters.The President has faced sagging approval ratings for months, but has maintained fervent support among his political base.

Trump fired back against some of those criticizing him Thursday morning, lashing out against the news media and Sen. Lindsey Graham, the Republican from South Carolina who slammed Trump for expressing a "moral equivalency" between the white supremacists and those who took to the streets to counter their racist, anti-Semitic rally.

Trump rebuked Graham for what he termed a "disgusting lie" and forcefully reminded Graham that he had solidly defeated him in the South Carolina Republican primary 18 months earlier.

In his tweet slamming the news media, Trump argued the media "totally misrepresent what I say about hate, bigotry etc."

Trump's rejection of the removal of Confederate monuments also came just a few hours after a CBS News poll showed that while a majority of Americans disapproved of Trump's response to the violence in Charlottesville, two-thirds of Republicans approved of his response. The poll, however, was conducted in part before Trump's impromptu news conference on Tuesday.

Source: CCN