Trump visiting Corpus Christi, Austin to see Harvey recovery

President Donald Trump is in Texas on Tuesday to see the recovery efforts underway in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.

Trump’s visit included an afternoon visit to the Emergency Operations Center in Austin, where he told workers the whole world was watching them and very impressed with their efforts. In a subsequent briefing with state officials, Trump marveled at the storm’s massive impact while bracing members of Congress for a costly response.

“It sounds like such an innocent name,” Trump said of Harvey. “But it’s not. It’s not innocent.”

Trump’s day in Texas began in the morning in Corpus Christi, the city along the Central Texas coast near where Harvey made landfall Friday as a Category 4 storm. He made a stop at a local firehouse for a roundtable with local and state officials, where he set a high bar for his administration’s response to Harvey.

“We want to do it better than ever before,” Trump said. “We want to be looked at in five years, in ten years from now as, this is the way to do it.”

Once the roundtable was done, Trump emerged from the firehouse and hopped up on a firetruck to address hundreds of people who had gathered outside. “What a crowd, what a turn out,” he said, speaking through a microphone.

“Texas can handle anything,” Trump told the crowd before holding up the state’s flag to loud cheers.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, told reporters aboard Air Force One that Trump’s schedule is “a little bit more fluid today than a normal travel day” due to the weather and other storm-related circumstances, according to a pool report.

“The president wants to be very cautious about making sure that any activity doesn’t disrupt any of the recovery efforts that are still ongoing, which is the reason for the locations we are going here today,” Huckabee Sanders said. “As of right now, I don’t know that we will be able to get to some of the really damaged areas.”

First Lady Melania Trump joined her husband for the trip. Gov. Greg Abbott, who greeted Trump at the Corpus Christi airport, accompanied the president throughout the day in Texas, as did U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick joined Trump in Corpus Christi.

A number of Cabinet and other administration officials attended the briefings in Corpus Christi and Austin, according to the White House. They included Elaine Duke, acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security; Ben Carson, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development; and Tom Price, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

The briefing in Austin was expected to include 14 members of Congress from Texas.

Trump’s trip Tuesday may not be the only time he visits Texas this week. He suggested Monday he could return this weekend while also traveling to Louisiana.

Vice President Mike Pence, in a radio interview Tuesday morning, said he and his wife will visit southeast Texas later this week.