President Donald Trump traveled to Texas today to survey the damage from Hurricane Harvey and be briefed on the storm relief efforts. During a stop near Corpus Christi, the president treated it much like a campaign rally, highlighting the size of the crowd that turned out to watch him speak.

This afternoon, CNN senior White House correspondent Jeff Zeleny remarked that in his reaction to the historic storm so far, POTUS appears to be more focused on the emergency response, businesses and his crowds as opposed to the victims themselves.

Reporting from Austin, where the president was scheduled to arrive at the state’s emergency command center, Zeleny provided the following observation to CNN anchor Brianna Keilar:

“One thing I am struck by here, seeing all the stories of emotion, all the stories of loss, of devastation still unfolding — we do not know the extent of the damage here — very little in terms of empathy from this president. Very little in terms of emotion or talking directly to the people of Texas. He’s been talking about the businesses, talking about the response and his crowd. Certainly, this is a test, a new moment for this president. But how he’ll ultimately be judged, Brianna, as every president is in a disaster like this, is not on today, it’s on the response and the recovery and how Texas rebuilds if they get federal funds, et cetera, months, perhaps even years, from now.”

Besides remarking on the incredible turnout today of Texas flood victims, Trump also stated at a storm briefing that they would all “congratulate each other” when it was over.

Watch the clip above, via CNN.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Justin Baragona on Twitter: @justinbaragona

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