Donald Trump Says 'I Could've Been on a Beautiful Beach' — While Visiting a Hurricane-Struck Town

Donald Trump recently marked his visit to Hurricane Helene, which hit areas of North Carolina. During his speech, the former President shared that he "didn't have to be" there to inspect the damaged areas. The 78-year-old continued saying, he "could have been on a beautiful beach" instead in the middle of his press conference. The controversial statement was followed by him stating, "I have no days off, so I’ll be going into the 60s or 70s in terms of no days off," in a clip shared by NewsNation.

The ex-POTUS added, "I don’t want a day off. We have to win. We have to win, we have to save our country. We have to just make America great again. That’s the message," as he explained his priority to visit the state. During the conference, Trump also falsely blamed the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for being corrupt with the sanction of funds. "You didn’t get the proper support from this administration — they spent their money on illegal migrants," he said. The business mogul had previously argued on similar lines about FEMA. To counter the supposition, U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards came forward to debunk it in a news release previously on October 8. "FEMA has NOT diverted disaster response funding to the border or foreign aid. Disaster response efforts and individual assistance are funded through the Disaster Relief Fund, which is a dedicated fund for disaster efforts," Edwards explained in the news release titled, Debunking Helene Response Myths.

Trump's visit came after he criticized President Joe Biden for not visiting the ground. According to Blue Ridge Public Radio, the Republican presidential nominee’s recent visit led to traffic jams and road blockades in the hurricane-hit zone. Highways were closed when the real estate mogul arrived in the state, which had recently been struck by Hurricane Helene. The hurricane hit just two weeks before the upcoming presidential election, slated for November 5.

On the other hand, Biden took a look at the devastating situation of the state via aerial mode of transport. According to Newsweek, the President shared that he'd rather not disturb the rebuilding process of the devastated area of the state by visiting it on foot. On September 30, Biden shared, "It's not just a catastrophic storm, it's a historic, history-making storm. Communities are devastated." During the September conference, Biden announced that the FEMA head was posted on ground zero in North Carolina then. 

The President added, "God willing they're alive, but there's no way to contact them because of the lack of cell phone coverage...We will not rest until everyone is accounted for. I directed my teams to provide every available resource as fast as possible to your communities to rescue, recover, and rebuild. I'm here to tell every single survivor that we will be there with you, as long as it takes." More than 3,600 personnel have been deployed to the affected areas as the state is working towards bringing back normalcy.