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Leadership contrast in disaster’s wake

The disaster that is Tropical Cyclone Helene (2024) has shown America a contrast in leadership between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

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Over the weekend, a Category 4 hurricane cut a swath of destruction across the American Southeast. Two candidates for President had a chance to show their leadership in the wake of that disaster. One is showing leadership and doing useful work to relieve suffering and anguish. But reporters caught the other one flatfooted – and that person then released a photograph meant to give the appearance of leadership, except for a glaring overlooked detail. Guess which candidate was actually in command, and which one was taking matters into his own capable and resourceful hands? If you put Kamala Harris and Donald Trump into the first and second positions, you guessed correctly. It was the most glaring leadership failure thus far by the Biden-Harris administration – and that’s saying a lot! It also showed who should return as President next January.

An occasion for leadership

The devastating named storm, now long dissipated over Louisville, Kentucky, was named Helene. On Thursday (September 24) this storm, a Category 4 hurricane, made landfall in the eastern part of the Florida Panhandle. Her track seemed to cut the Panhandle off from the Peninsula, then moved through eastern Georgia, over the western tip of North Carolina, then across East Tennessee, and finally into Kentucky. There the storm track curved back on itself, and Helene finished as a “tropical low” over Louisville. (Source: WXIA-TV, Channel 11, Atlanta, Georgia.)

This storm took a toll of death, damage, and destruction that even North America rarely sees during “Hurricane Season.”

More than 130 people have died of the usual immediate violent events – drowning, falling objects, etc. 1000 more are missing. Electricity, natural gas, and water are not available to millions of people at this time. The storm tore up roads and washed out bridges, thus cutting many people off from food or shelter. Asheville, North Carolina, seems to have suffered the worst. In some cases it has destroyed historical structures. Nor did the toll confine itself to the track; Southwest Virginia also felt the effects.

Incidentally, several electric cars in Florida exploded after saltwater flooded them. Great American Electric Vehicle Road Test Failure, Round Two.

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Where were Biden and Harris?

The first obvious official responsible for any disaster in any given State is that State’s governor. But the federal government has nominally taken on a responsibility to assist State and local officials after events like this. That’s what the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) exists to provide. In addition, people expect the President to “do something.” George W. Bush famously suffered embarrassment by appearing not to respond quickly enough to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

So how did Biden and Harris respond? Biden turned in, by all odds, the worst performance. He spent the weekend at the beach, then lamely said he was “commanding” while out of sight. Later he said he had “given them all we have.”

But he’s not running for President again; his Vice-President is. So what performance did she turn in? Reporters shouted a question at her about the cyclone as she got out of her limousine and crossed the tarmac to the boarding ramp to the C-32 that flies as Air Force Two while she is aboard. And she didn’t acknowledge the question.

Later she released a photograph of herself ostensibly taking a call on a smartphone and taking notes.

She had a set of “ear buds” in place. But she didn’t plug them into her phone. She just left the cord dangling. Later, she appeared at FEMA headquarters, spoke for five minutes, then left without taking any questions.

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Trump goes on the scene

In stark contrast, Donald Trump has behaved strikingly like the President he once was, and hopes to be again. He’s not doing it alone; the “Cajun Navy,” an interstate emergency river-boat and air militia that formed after Hurricane Katrina, is now on the scene.

President Trump traveled first to Valdosta, Georgia, another hard-hit town, yesterday. He held a press briefing in that town that afternoon.

But he did more than talk: he brought relief supplies with him.

🚨BREAKING: President Trump just announced a visit to Valdosta, Georgia to distribute relief supplies in the wake of Hurricane Helene and deliver remarks to the press. Some ask where is Trump? He’s helping the people even before he got elected! Where is Kamala? Where is Biden?

We are now heading to Valdosta, Georgia, in order to pay my respects and bring lots of relief material, including fuel, equipment, water, and other things, to the State. Many politicians and Law Enforcement will be there. We’ll be saying hello to Franklin Graham, Burt Jones, Tyler Harper, Mike Collins, Austin Scott, Russ Goodman, Sam Watson, and the Mayor of Valdosta Scott James. They are working very hard. I was also going to stop into North Carolina, which has really been hit hard. I have a lot of supplies ready for them, but access and communication is now restricted, and we want to make sure that Local Emergency Management is able to focus on helping the people most affected, and not being concerned with me. I’ll be there shortly, but don’t like the reports that I’m getting about the Federal Government, and the Democrat Governor of the State, going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas. MAGA!

PRESIDENT TRUMP: “We came down with truckloads of different items, from oil to water. We’re here today to stand with complete solidarity with the people of Georgia and all those suffering in the terrible aftermath of Hurricane Helene.”

Trump also said he’d asked Elon Musk to rush some Starlink installations into the affected area.

BREAKING: Trump just revealed that he is personally coordinating with Elon Musk to get Starlink set up for Hurricane Helene victims who have lost communication. “We want to get Starlink hooked up because they have no communication whatsoever. And Elon will always come through. We know that.”

It’s not even a joke anymore. Elon Musk and Trump are doing more to save America than the traitors in power right now.

Investigative journalist Nick Sortor had already set up two “public stations” in Asheville.

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Another outlet disputes Trump’s account, saying FEMA already had a Starlink coordination plan in place. But so far, only that one outlet is saying that.

Trump’s latest action is a fundraising campaign to raise relief funds for the stricken areas. A GoFundMe page is already active.

BREAKING: Trump just launched a GoFundMe for Hurricane Helene victims. It’s almost at $1 million already just within a few minutes. He’s taking matters into his own hands because the federal government refuses to care.

An ancient example of leadership

Clearly Donald Trump is showing leadership, while Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are not. But Trump is also echoing an ancient paradigm of political leadership – from ancient Rome. Before Rome invented the administrative state that would eventually contribute to her downfall, she expected her politicians and general officers to supply the needs of the Roman state and its citizens out of their own pockets. Even Roman infantrymen had to supply their own equipment, until seven-times consul Gaius Marius invented the concept government issue. The famous Roads Leading to Rome were all semi-private projects, like the Via Appia by Appius Claudius Caecus (“The Blind”).

In this context, the example of Gaius Julius Caesar, the eventual revolutionary, is instructive. Returning from Further Spain in 66 B.C., he ran for election as curator of the Via Appia and won. Then he spent a fortune, out of his own pocket, bringing that road back to proper repair. That was how Caesar did everything. In 64 B.C., as High Commissioner of Building Inspections, Public Works, and Entertainment (officially, aedilus curulis), he anticipated Donald Trump’s Central Park Skating Rink project by producing the greatest games Rome had yet seen.

No evidence exists that Donald Trump studied Caesar, but none can doubt he is following Caesar’s example. Incredibly, Joe Biden tells the American people to donate to hurricane relief.

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BREAKING🚨🚨🚨🚨 This POS just said the American people need to help fund the recovery of Hurricane Helene in NC. Because it’s gonna take a hell of a lot of money. Is he FUKING KIDDING ME !!!!!!! Okay now I’m officially LIVID. Make this VIRAL!!! Please.

The modern demonstration

But Donald Trump, not Biden or Harris, is on the ground, organizing that relief. This is only the latest example. Earlier, Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine sought him out, even after earlier discussing matters with Vice-President Harris. Trump politely received him, and the two earnestly discussed how to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

Trump’s detractors might presume to criticize him for taking on himself the functions of the President he is not. But when neither the incumbent President nor their installed candidate will exercise those functions, someone must. That might be unorthodox, but it is no less necessary – and the precedent for it is thousands of years old.

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Terry A. Hurlbut
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Terry A. Hurlbut has been a student of politics, philosophy, and science for more than 35 years. He is a graduate of Yale College and has served as a physician-level laboratory administrator in a 250-bed community hospital. He also is a serious student of the Bible, is conversant in its two primary original languages, and has followed the creation-science movement closely since 1993.

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