Leave it to Donald Trump to use a dire situation like Hurricane Harvey [1] as an opportunity to boast about how "great" of a job he's doing at keeping tabs on it. The hurricane, which made landfall in Texas on the evening of Aug. 25, is expected to bring "catastrophic flooding" to the area [2]. The POTUS has been incessantly tweeting about the storm, using every chance he can to let Americans know that he's "closely watching" and "monitoring" things. But his latest social media posts about Harvey have left us shaking our heads.
When US Senator Chuck Grassley tweeted at Trump [3] to say that he shouldn't make the "same mistake Pres Bush made [with] Katrina," Trump replied and gave himself a pat on the back for his response to Hurricane Harvey.
.@ChuckGrassley [5] - got your message loud and clear. We have fantastic people on the ground, got there long before #Harvey [6]. So far, so good!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 26, 2017 [7]
But it didn't stop there, as he fired off another tone-deaf tweet that solely acknowledged the government's preparedness for the storm, rather than discussing the safety and needs of Texans in Harvey's path.
Closely monitoring #HurricaneHarvey [8] from Camp David. We are leaving nothing to chance. City, State and Federal Govs. working great together!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 26, 2017 [9]
It seems like Trump is more interested in using the alarming circumstances of the storm as a platform to boast about the government's preparedness. But other internet users think it goes deeper than that. Considering the fact that Trump snuck in a tweet about fully pardoning Sheriff Joe Arpaio [10] (which caused a sh*tstorm of backlash [11]) among his various tweets about Hurricane Harvey, some people believe he's trying to cover up the news of the pardon.
Stop tweeting about the storm. You are making everyone nervous wondering what evil crap you are trying to draw our attention away from.
— pat l (@LPatherat) August 26, 2017 [12]
Make no mistake Trump is using category 4 hurricane Harvey as a political cover to pardon the incredibly racist Joe Arpaio #hurricaneharvey [13]
— matt (@mrm_matt) August 26, 2017 [14]
So Trump, in a rare, RARE moment of political slyness, pardons Sheriff Joe Arpaio while everyone is distracted with Hurricane Harvey.
— Eric Shaffer (@LordShaffy) August 26, 2017 [15]