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Donald Trump jokes his 'hands are too big' as he serves food at Harvey shelter

Saturday 02 September 2017 15:11 EDT
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President Donald Trump passes out food and meets people impacted by Hurricane Harvey during a visit to the NRG Center in Houston
President Donald Trump passes out food and meets people impacted by Hurricane Harvey during a visit to the NRG Center in Houston (AP)

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Donald Trump has joked that his hands are "too big" while helping to serve food to victims of storm Harvey at a shelter in Houston.

Video broadcast by US networks of President Trump's visit to the NRG Center shows him putting on gloves to help with the hand-out at a food serving line before turning to where the press are gathered and saying "my hands are too big".

Mr Trump, along with First Lady Melania Trump, are on a second visit to Texas since hurricane Harvey hit last week and are due to visit Louisiana, which ahs also been affected by rain and flooding, later in the day.

Mr Trump - who has faced pervious jibes about the size of his hands, including from Marco Rubio during the 2016 presidential campaign - appeared relaxed as he posed for photographs with volunteers and chatted with those relocated to the shelter alongside Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

Melania, the sleeves of her blue denim shirt rolled up, hugged a woman and chatted with a child.

“It has been a wonderful thing,” Mr Trump said of his meetings with the children as he helped serve food to evacuees amid shouts of “Thank you, sir.”

Mr Trump's visit came after a week of historic flooding in the area that killed more than 40 people, displaced more than one million and dumped as much as 50 inches (127 cm) of rain in some areas.

Mr Trump, faced criticism for not meeting with victims and not showing more empathy on his first trip to Texas on Tuesday.

Trump stayed clear of the disaster zone earlier this week, saying he did not want to hamper rescue efforts. Instead, he met with Cabinet members, state and local leaders and first responders in the state capital Austin and Corpus Christi, where Harvey first hit, focusing on the logistics of the government response.

Reuters contributed to this report

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