Just hours after his campaign manager assured America that Trump’s visit to Baton Rouge would be a “decidedly nonpolitical” event with “no press allowed,” Donald Trump has taken the opportunity to slam President Obama over his absence, while being trailed through Baton Rouge by a coterie of reporters and photographers. Right before addressing volunteers at the Greenwell Springs Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, Trump took this dig at the President:
Donald Trump: The President said he doesn’t want to go, he’s trying to get out of a golf game.
State Rep. Tony Perkins: Well, I heard he was trying to stay under par while we’re underwater.
Donald Trump: He’ll never be under par.
That was Louisiana State Representative Tony Perkins joking with Trump, with Rev. Franklin Graham smiling in the foreground. As you can see, Trump was trailed by a throng of reporters and photographers as he addressed volunteers, and the press followed Trump on every step of his trip.
The flooding in Louisiana that’s killed 13 people so far and displaced tens of thousands has now officially become a political football. On Thursday, the state’s largest newspaper demanded that President Obama leave his vacation in order to tour the damage, while the state’s Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards asked that the President not come to the state, and suggested that a planned visit by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump amounted to a “photo op.”