Former president Donald Trump is trying to portray himself as a man who cares about the people by visiting the site of the train derailment in East Palestine near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border on Wednesday and reportedly planning to meet with local officials and donate gallons of water to support the cleanup effort. But there’s a problem: Trump is not known for empathy and people are calling him out for his “political stunt.”
“It’s clear that it’s a political stunt,” said former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a former Republican congressman who led the Department of Transportation in Barack Obama’s first term. “If he wants to visit, he’s a citizen. But clearly, his regulations and the elimination of them, and no emphasis on safety, is going to be pointed out.”
Some members of the Biden administration are welcoming Trump’s move as a chance to highlight the previous administration’s safety record.
“It’s clear that it’s a political stunt,” said former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a former Republican congressman from Illinois. “If he wants to visit, he’s a citizen. But clearly, his regulations and the elimination of them, and no emphasis on safety, is going to be pointed out.”
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“There is a chance for everybody who has a public voice on this issue to demonstrate whether they are interested in helping the people of East Palestine or using the people of East Palestine,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Buttigieg said. “A lot of the folks who seem to find political opportunity there are among those who have sided with the rail industry again and again and again as they have fought safety regulations on railroads and [hazardous materials] tooth and nail.”
Trump and his allies have criticized President Joe Biden and his administration for failing to send a high-ranking official to visit, although Buttigieg said he would go “when the time is right,” but locals are wary of visits from national political leaders.
“We don’t want to become political pawns,” said East Palestine mayor Trent Conaway.
New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman chimed in, warning on Wednesday that Trump’s visit may not be the public relations coup he imagines.
“That is why you have not seen him do big rallies. He is putting himself in to show him as a contrasting president to President Biden,” Haberman said during an interview on CNN before explaining that getting up close and personal with people afflicted with tragedy does not play to Trump’s political strengths.
“He is not known for his empathy to begin with,” she noted. “So we’ll see how this visit goes.”
