President Trump visited Malibu as part of his visit to the areas affected by the California fires last weekend.
Julie Ellerton, The Malibu Times multimedia director, went around town and asked locals this question:
“How do you feel about President Trump visiting Malibu?”
Here are their responses.
Gail Block
“I’m very glad that the President saw the devastation personally because his statements prior to the time did not seem to reflect an understanding of the magnitude of our loss. As has happened in other cases, my feeling is that he expressed an understanding and then 10 mins later expressed the opposite point of view. For instance, he’s attributing some of our issues to forests that weren’t maintained, which are manly BLM (federal) forest, and to the fact that we hadn’t raked our leaves… I would disagree with him.”
Elizabeth Smith
“I had really mixed feelings about it. I thought that he had to visit. He doesn’t like California; it’s real evident. When he tweeted out that he was going to take away our funds for disaster because we weren’t doing things right, I thought that was so insensitive, I couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t the time or the place and I don’t think he really gets it even though he saw it firsthand. In my heart, I don’t think he gets it.”
From the web:
“Lots of vile comments on here. Welcome to Malibu Mr. President. God bless you for caring!”
—M. Marshall
“President Trump put compassion ahead of politics, you should too. I lost my home November 9th, I’m glad President Trump came to Malibu.”
—C. Blake
“He’s not helping. He’s just causing a traffic problem and getting in the way. We all know he doesn’t care.”
—K. Dennis
“Too bad there wasn’t a light drizzle.”
—B. Neel
“Did Dume Drive need a little more devastation? I think not.”
—L. Nelson
