You may recall that on Saturday, Donald Trump and Mike Pence flew to Louisiana to visit the flood zone near Baton Rouge, despite Louisiana state officials begging them not to come unless he was willing to volunteer or donate to the relief effort. Their brief visit turned into little more than a photo op, with Trump and Pence spending a grand total of 49 seconds handing out Play-Doh to victims.
Well, one person who is actually doing something to help the victims was having none of it. Neva Butkus, a legal assistant in Baton Rouge, has been volunteering for various efforts in the Baton Rouge area since her student days at LSU. When Butkus found out about Trump’s photo op, she hit the ceiling. At one forum on Facebook, she let the Donald have it.
To those wondering why Trump came to Louisiana and Obama didn’t, Butkus pointed out that Edwards had explicitly asked the president to stay out of the state last week because first responders couldn’t be spared. As we all know, even in normal conditions, whenever the president comes to town, nearly every police officer in a town is pressed into service to protect him. In other words–there was too much dangerous and important work going on for a politician to come in for a photo op.
Butkus then had a hard question for the Donald.
“Seriously. Where is the check. Like where is the f***ing check. My people are drowning. My co-workers and family and friends have lost everything. My friends and co-workers that haven’t lost everything are taking off work (my boyfriend is taking PTO) to clean out people’s homes and rip out sheet rock and carpet. Give us money or GTFO. I don’t want to see you in your suit in AUGUST carrying boxes off a truck like you care about us.”
Butkus knows how dire the situation is in Baton Rouge. She’s spent a week organizing the relief effort, and has spent this weekend demolishing houses that can’t be salvaged. So you can understand why she has little time for a presidential candidate flying in for a photo op. In contrast to Trump, Obama decided to come to Louisiana on Tuesday only after getting assurances that his visit would not interfere with the relief effort.
To his credit, Trump did write a check–a $100,000 donation to Greenwell Springs Baptist Church outside Baton Rouge, whose interim pastor is Family Research Council president and religious right poo-bah Tony Perkins. That church was heavily damaged by the floods.
Sorry, Donald, not good enough. Why didn’t you follow Edwards’ original request to donate to the state flood relief fund? Or to the Red Cross, or any fund dedicated to actual relief on the ground? Or at the very least, you could have stipulated that every penny go to the Southern Baptist Convention’s disaster relief teams. That way, we’d know that the money is going to the people who need it the most. Churches can be rebuilt, but wouldn’t you think ordinary people should come first?
Unless Trump stipulated that the money go to flood relief first, Butkus’ original criticism still stands.
