The Stream

Hurricane Harvey is ‘The Moment’ for Trump

By Al Perrotta Published on August 28, 2017 •

Al Perrotta

Presidents get inaugurated on Inauguration Day. They get baptized when the first catastrophe hits. President Trump now faces his moment: Hurricane Harvey.

If President Trump guides the nation through this storm, executes with precision the Federal recovery effort, eases the suffering of those afflicted, shows empathy for those all stripes and colors, he could make his presidency. Russia, Arpaio, talk of racism and instability will be gone in the wind. Blow it, and all the rallies and MAGA hats won’t mean a darn thing. It’s this storm that matters. Not any Twitter storm.

So Far

As the rains continue and the waters rise, President Trump is operating on two fronts. First is overseeing the Federal response. So far, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is rating the response from the President on down as an “A plus.”

“He called and said, `Governor, whatever you need you’ve got.’” Abbott told Fox News Sunday. “And this is the quickest turnaround I’ve seen from the time that a governor made a disaster declaration and getting that granted. What that means for the lay person out there is that, because the president so swiftly granted my application for disaster declaration, it means it triggered all the resources of FEMA to help Texas and what you will see over the coming weeks and months is a tremendous rebuilding from all this damage and a large part of that will be because of FEMA helping out.”

Trump again met Sunday by teleconference with top administration officials to discuss federal support for response and recovery efforts.

The second front in Trump’s response to Harvey: Communicating with the public.

That is to say, offering updates:

Offering thanks and encouragement.

Offering up his own plans to travel to the impact area. (It has since been announced he’ll be down here Tuesday.)

Early Saturday, Trump tweeted encouragement to FEMA director Broke Long. “You are doing a great job — the world is watching.”

The world is, indeed, watching. Not only the unfolding, historic disaster and agonizing human trauma, but also the President’s words and deeds. And the road ahead is lined with political perils.

The Dangers

President George W. Bush learned this with Katrina. Local authorities failed miserably. Still, the federal response to Katrina was not only roundly criticized at the time. “Katrina” has become shorthand for how not to handle a hurricane. How many times last week did you hear a journalist, pundit or FEMA official use the phrase “avoiding the mistakes of Katrina”?

President Bush didn’t help matters when he gave then-FEMA director Michael D. Brown a thumbs up, as even New Orleans was going under.”Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job!” ranks with “Read my lips” and “I did not have sex with that woman” among recent Presidential misfires.

President Obama got slammed for his reaction and inaction to the Exxon spill in 2010. Who can forget Democrat strategist and Louisiana native James Carville lighting up Obama for his failure to act. “We’re dyin‘ down here!” screamed the Ragin’ Cajun.

President Clinton faced the Waco inferno just months into his term. He received criticism, not only for the federal actions at the Branch Davidian compound, but for the perception that he let Attorney General Janet Reno take the heat. Two years later, to the day, came the Oklahoma City Bombing. His speech at the Time of Healing service four days later brought great comfort to the nation. He led.

President Trump has one disadvantage from his predecessors. He faces a media and a political opposition hellbent on destroying him. Even the slightest misstep will be played as the greatest presidential failure since James Buchanan let the nation slide toward Civil War. Before the rains stop his opponent will accuse him of making the waters rise by pulling out of the Paris Accord.

He could fly in planeloads of Trump Water out of his own pocket — actually, he could sop up all the water with one of his Trump ties — and someone will accuse him of trying to profit off the tragedy.

Exaggerating? Trump has already gotten grief just for saying “good luck” to the people of Texas. 

The danger is if Trump takes his eye off the ball. Look, he’s Donald Trump. That means at some point in all this he will say something that will drive people crazy. He doesn’t have a reservoir of good will built up with most Americans. So we don’t need that bull in a china shop storming the streets of Houston.

On the other hand, the advantage Donald Trump has is that he is Donald J. Trump.

The Advantage

President Trump brings to the table in the crisis something that cannot be overlooked. This is a man who made his fortune restoring and renovating things. It’s his passion. If God gave him a choice between giving up Twitter or giving up building things, he’d drop off social media faster than you can say Facebook. What’s more, as Trump is fond of pointing out, he tends to do those restorations on time and under budget. We’re looking at a massive, likely unprecedented rebuilding effort in Texas and Louisiana. No way CNN can spin it. Having a builder in the White House is a good thing. And you can bet Trump will be hands-on.

His second advantage is as a CEO and entrepreneur. That means you live and die by finding practical solutions to tough problems. Red tape is your mortal enemy.

My girlfriend at the time of the Northridge quake was a pool reporter following around Mayor Richard Riordan a day or so after the quake. She watched Riordan, a businessman-turned-philanthropist, as he examined the collapsed 10 Freeway. The busiest freeway stretch on the planet was a pile of rubble. The 5 freeway was also down. The major north-south and east-west routes into L.A. were severed. Riordan walked up to a guy in a hard hat. “What do you need?” The man started talking about this form and that form, standard government stuff.  “No, no. You didn’t hear me.” said Riordan. “What do you need?” The hard hat’s eyes got big. “Oh, Oh! The Marines have this massive earth-mover down at Camp Pendleton, this firm in Nevada has gigantic huge cranes. …” A couple days later, Riordan is talking to a contractor who had the task of rebuilding the freeways. Riordan says, “Here’s the deal. I want those freeways fully fixed in six months. Every day you get it done before that I’ll give you an extra million dollars.” Those freeways were fixed in three months.

Extraordinary disasters need something beyond a normal politician.

Trump’s third advantage are the qualities that make him maddening the rest of the time. The boastfulness, the outragousness, the stubbornness, the fearlessness, the ruthlessness. In the next few weeks, do you really want to be the bureaucrat that tells Trump something can’t be done in Houston that he knows can be done? Do you want to be the contractor who fails to deliver? Do you want to be the politician who tries to get cute with emergency appropriations?

Conversely, in a state looking at utter destruction, don’t you want to hear, “We’re going to rebuild it. It’s going to be better than before. It’s going to be beautiful. I promise you that”? Don’t you want to see a President with a large enough personality to make the problems seem just a little bit smaller? (See FDR.) Don’t you want to listen to a man who once faced utter ruin and fought his way back to the top? A man who every pollster and pundit declared defeated? Don’t we need a fighter?

Donald Trump won his Presidency on a Tuesday. This Tuesday … and the days to come … will go a long way in determining whether he keeps it.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Like the article? Share it with your friends! And use our social media pages to join or start the conversation! Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, MeWe and Gab.

Inspiration
Military Photo of the Day: Stealth Bomber Fuel
Tom Sileo
More from The Stream

No related posts.

Recommended
More

Equipping Christians to Engage Culture

Connect with Us