Trump Can’t Stop Inserting Himself into Former Presidents’ Hurricane Relief Efforts

Donald Trump clearly can’t stand that five living former presidents are coming together without him to raise funds and awareness in the wake of the country’s recent devastating hurricanes.

Former presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama are hosting the “Deep from the Heart: One America Appeal Concert” Saturday night at Texas A&M’s Reed Arena. The sold–out two-hour concert, which will be livestreamed on Google and YouTube, features a lineup of big–name country music acts including Alabama, Lyle Lovett, the Gatlin Brothers, and others.

But Trump, who’s spending yet another weekend at one of his golf resorts, probably won’t be there unless he decides to crash it.

Instead, Trump sent a pre–recorded, two–angle video in which he promises that, “Together, we will recover, we will rebuild, and we will come back stronger and better than ever before.”

But while he practically shouts in the video, it’s impossible not to recall all of the recent events involving his shameful response to Hurricane Maria’s destruction in Puerto Rico.

It’s hard to take seriously the words of encouragement and the promises of a man who unrepentantly threw paper towels at the victims of a natural disaster like T–shirts at a ballgame. Or who blamed those victims for the disaster and then got into a media fight with the mayor of San Juan while the tragedy continued to unfold. Just last Thursday, Trump put Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rossello on the spot by asking him during a White House meeting at the Oval Office: “Did we do a great job?”

Did we, huh?! Did we?!

This was after Trump had already assessed his own administration’s failed response to Hurricane Maria as a “10.” Yet, many Puerto Ricans still don’t have electricity or water.

Then there’s the thorny issue of two of those former presidents criticizing Trump in public this week, although not by name, leaving the White House room to deny it. On Friday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders denied that recent comments by presidents George W. Bush and Obama were aimed squarely at Trump and those who enable and support him. But anyone listening knew that they clearly were.

The former presidents both spoke at separate events on Thursday, with Bush stating: “Bigotry seems emboldened.” And: “Our politics seems more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication.” I wonder to whom he was referring, if not Trump.

That same day, Obama said: “Some of the things we see now, we thought we put that to bed. That’s folks looking 50 years back. It’s the 21st century, not the 19th century,” Business Insider reported.

So, when watching Trump’s video message, which was first reported by the Washington Examiner, one has to wonder: Is he shouting because that’s how he talks when he has to read something, or is he trying to upstage everyone else by being louder?

It’s a sad state of affairs when you have to even ask that question, and can’t give the president, who’s probably golfing right now, the benefit of the doubt.