Trump criticised for not meeting Harvey victims and marvelling at crowd size during trip

Donald Trump has been criticised for marvelling at crowd sizes and not meeting with victims of Hurricane Harvey during his brief trip to Texas.

While the administration is said to be working well with state authorities to deal with the crisis caused by Harvey, critics say Mr Trump failed at fulfilling his unofficial role as ‘consoler-in-chief’ when he flew to Texas to meet with state officials and disaster response coordinators.

David Axelrod, who served as a senior adviser to former President Barack Obama, wrote in a commentary for CNN that one of the unwritten jobs of the President is to offer support and encouragement to fellow citizens on behalf of a concerned nation during times of crisis.

“Startlingly, [Mr Trump] did not utter one syllable about those who have lost their lives, their homes or businesses in the floods that are still swelling over southeast Texas, overwhelming the heroic first responders and volunteers who are straining to meet its demands,” Mr Axelrod wrote.

He added that Mr Trump “had no solace for the tens of thousands of evacuees, some of whom were separated from their families in the storm and are now warehoused in arenas, left to wonder what comes next.”

As Houston continued to be slammed by remnants of Harvey, Mr Trump on Tuesday was quick to praise the efforts of those on the ground during a visit to Corpus Christi – one of the cities near the coast that also faced the brunt of the storm. He visited Austin later in the day.

Harvey, which was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm over the weekend, has brought unprecedented and catastrophic flooding to the southeastern region of Texas.

The presidential entourage avoided Houston and the surrounding area, where the vast majority of the more than 17,000 people who had sought shelter were gathered. The White House was keen to stress that Mr Trump wanted to be “very cautious” to not disrupt recovery efforts.

When standing in front of a crowd outside a Corpus Christi fire station, Mr Trump said, “Thank you,” to applause. “We love you, you are special, we are here to take care of you. It’s going well.”

“What a crowd, what a turnout,” he called out to the people gathered.

Twitter users and political pundits mocked Mr Trump for fixating on the size of a crowd – “of people thrown out of their homes by a natural disaster”, asserted Jennifer Rubin, a conservative blogger for the Washington Post.

People also tweeted photographs of former presidents hugging victims of past hurricanes, including one of Mr Obama with his arms wrapped around a woman who had suffered as a result of Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

It appears that Mr Trump did not offer the same kind of solace to those reeling from Harvey as his predecessors.

Before the President's trip, social media users dug up Mr Trump’s old Twitter posts in which the former real estate magnate had written “Hurricane is good luck for Obama again- he will buy the election by handing out billions of dollars”.

“Not only giving out money, but Obama will be seen today standing in water and rain like he is a real President – don't fall for it,” Mr Trump warned.

Following the backlash he received during his Texas visit, Mr Trump tweeted on Wednesday morning: “After witnessing first hand the horror & devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey, my heart goes out even more so to the great people of Texas!”

“After reading the false reporting and even ferocious anger in some dying magazines, it makes me wonder, WHY? All I want to do is #MAGA!,” he said in another tweet.

Former President George W Bush was criticized for his delayed visit to the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina, but when he did travel to the region, he met with storm victims.

Mr Trump is expected to travel back to Texas this weekend.