Trump wants Texas to set the standard for disaster relief: ‘This is the way to do it’

“We want to do it better than ever before,” Trump said Tuesday during a briefing on Hurricane Harvey relief efforts in Corpus Christi, Texas. “We want to be looked at in five years and 10 years from now as, this is the way to do it. This was of epic proportion. No one has ever seen anything like this.”

“I just want to say in working with the governor and his entire team has been an honor for us,” he said.

The administration’s actions are being closely watched by Democrats, many of whom still blame President George W. Bush for failing to coordinate relief efforts to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Some Democrats are already calling on Republicans to quickly pass a bill to fund relief efforts in Texas that doesn’t demand spending offsets for that relief, which some Republicans demanded in 2005.

The president and first lady Melania Trump landed in Corpus Christi on Tuesday to meet with local and state officials following Hurricane Harvey.

The president offered praise to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, as well as acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke, and FEMA Administrator Brock Long, who Trump joked had become recognizable in recent days due to his many appearances on TV.

But Trump stopped short of offering congratulations to Abbott, a Republican, saying instead he would wait until relief efforts were concluded.

“We won’t say congratulations. We don’t want to do that,” Trump said. “We’ll congratulate each other when it’s all finished. But you have been terrific and you’ve been my friend for a long time.”

As floodwaters in the Houston area continue to rise, thousands of people have headed to the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, which is serving as a shelter for those who are displaced.

The Red Cross planned to accommodate 5,000 people, but there are currently more than 9,000 there, and officials expect thousands more to arrive, according to ABC News.

During the briefing Tuesday, Long reassured those in attendance that the situation at the convention center differed greatly from that of the Louisiana Superdome following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“Let me be clear. This is not the Superdome,” Long said. “The convention center, we are sustaining food. They have food, security, I have an incident management team inside the city of Houston as we speak, and more and more people are being moved to shelters to stabilize the situation.”

The president and first lady are spending Tuesday in Texas and will travel to Austin after their stop in Corpus Christi.

There, they will tour the Texas Department of Public Safety Emergency Operations Center and receive another briefing on the hurricane from state leaders before returning to Washington, D.C.

Hurricane Harvey hit southeastern Texas on Friday and Saturday, and downgraded to a tropical storm.

Parts of Harris County, including Houston, has been hit with devastating flooding, which has left thousands displaced.

Trump will not visit Houston during his trip Tuesday, but White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters the president intends to return to Texas on Saturday and go to a “different part of the state.”