With Texas in the grip of Hurricane Harvey, President Donald Trump and his family returned to the White House on Sunday afternoon after spending two days at Camp David.
The president, First Lady Melania Trump, and their 11-year-old son Barron were seen disembarking from Marine One and walking across the South Lawn toward the White House.
They were joined by Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, her husband and presidential senior adviser Jared Kushner, and their three children.
Trump makes his return to the nation’s capital as Texas continues to grapple with a hurricane that continues to devastate its eastern coast.
The president will travel to Texas on Tuesday to survey storm damage and flooding caused by Harvey, which hit the state late last week as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, a White House spokeswoman said on Sunday.
The White House was ‘coordinating logistics with state and local officials,’ spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.
President Donald Trump and his family returned to the White House on Sunday afternoon after spending two days at Camp David
Trump is seen giving a salute to a soldier as he steps off Marine One upon arrival on the South Lawn of the White House on Sunday
Trump was accompanied by his 11-year-old son, Barron, and First Lady Melania Trump
Trump makes his return to the nation’s capital as Texas continues to grapple with a hurricane that continues to devastate its eastern coast
The president will travel to Texas on Tuesday to survey storm damage and flooding caused by Harvey
Trump returns to Washington after an eventful weekend which began when he made the controversial decision to pardon former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio
The president was wearing a white USA hat. His facial expression and body language made him appear somewhat unhappy
Once details were finalized, more information would be available, she said.
‘We continue to keep all of those affected in our thoughts and prayers,’ Sanders said.
Trump has been tweeting about Harvey, praising the coordination between the various government agencies responding to the catastrophe.
The president also tweeted that his travel plans were being arranged according to conditions on the ground.
Harvey came ashore late on Friday as the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in more than 50 years and has killed at least two people.
The death toll is expected to rise as the storm lashes the state for days, triggering record floods, tidal surges and tornadoes.
Trump’s senior advisor and son-in-law, Jared Kushner (far left), Kushner’s wife, Ivanka (far right), and their three children also returned to the White House with the president
Kushner most recently returned to the U.S. after leading a team of negotiators on a trip to the Middle East
The president’s son-in-law has been tasked with heading the U.S. government’s efforts to bring peace to the Middle East
Ivanka Trump is seen with her children, Joseph and Theodore, after disembarking Marine One
Like her husband, Ivanka Trump is also a senior adviser to her father
‘We continue to keep all of those affected in our thoughts and prayers,’ Sanders said.
The widespread flooding caused by Harvey in Texas, including in Houston, the fourth most populous U.S. city, is the first test of how Trump, who never previously held political office, responds to a major storm on his watch.
Former President George W. Bush, a fellow Republican, was sharply criticized for his handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the last time a storm of Harvey’s magnitude struck the United States.
Bush was called insensitive for not initially visiting New Orleans, hard hit by Katrina, and instead releasing a photo of himself looking out a plane window at the damage.
Trump has been tweeting about Harvey, praising the coordination between the various government agencies responding to the catastrophe
Since the president travels with a large retinue of Secret Service agents and under a rigorous security protocol, most administrations avoid visiting during the height of natural disasters for fear they will pull resources away from rescue and aid attempts.
During a video conference with his Cabinet on Sunday afternoon, Trump ‘reminded everyone that search and rescue efforts will transition to mass care, restoring power, providing life-sustaining necessities for the population that sheltered in place, and economic recovery,’ according to a White House statement.
A year ago, Trump, then the Republican presidential nominee, and his running mate, Mike Pence, toured the scenes of major flooding in Louisiana and criticized Democratic President Barack Obama for vacationing at Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts during the storm.
Trump spent Saturday and part of Sunday at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland where he tweeted frequently about Harvey and other issues.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott told a news conference on Sunday that coordination with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and its new director, Brock Long, was going smoothly.
Long said Harvey’s effects would last for years.
‘This disaster is going to be a landmark event,’ Long told CNN on Sunday. ‘We’re setting up and gearing up for the next couple of years.’