As Tropical Storm Harvey rages in Texas, Trump drops hodgepodge of tweets

Gabby Kaufman
·Reporter

President Trump took to Twitter Sunday to indicate he was monitoring Tropical Storm Harvey, which continues to wreak havoc on the Texas Gulf Coast after being downgraded from a hurricane.

Wedged between the praise for emergency responders, however, were missives touching on subjects such as his proposed border wall between the U.S. and Mexico and his attempt to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Related slideshow: Hurricane Harvey lashes Texas>>>

Trump’s first tweet of the day was a post promoting a book by Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke.

He also teased an upcoming trip to Missouri, mentioning he “won by a lot in ’16” there,” and contended that Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill will lose her seat in 2018.

Soon after, Trump touched on two major themes of his campaign, building a southern border wall and renegotiating or terminating NAFTA.

At a rally in Phoenix Tuesday, Trump threatened a government shutdown if Congress did not fund the wall’s construction, a stark departure from his campaign promise that Mexico would pay for it. Trump’s tweet Sunday assured “Mexico will pay for it through reimbursement/other.”

He followed that up with a dig at the U.S.’s southern and northern neighbors, claiming that both Mexico and Canada were “being very difficult” throughout the NAFTA renegotiation process.

Turning back to the disaster in Texas, Trump praised the “the “great coordination between all levels of government” and “great talent on the ground.” He also said he will visit Texas “as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption” to the ongoing emergency response. Trump seemed to marvel at the intensity of the storm.

Tropical Storm Harvey made landfall in Texas Friday as a Category 4 hurricane, and images out of Houston and the surrounding area show severe flooding. Officials confirmed at least two fatalities as of Sunday, with some outlets reporting up to five deaths.

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