This story has been updated with details of Trump's visit. Former President Trump traveled to East Palestine, Ohio, on Wednesday amid growing Republican criticism of the current president for not touring the site of the Feb. 3 derailment of a train carrying hazardous materials. "You have people in Ohio that are in desperate need of help," Trump said Monday as President Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv. Trump, who often surveyed disaster damage when he was president, was joined by officials including Republican Sen. JD Vance and East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway and traveled to the site in a motorcade, the AP reports. He spoke for around 10 minutes at a firehouse around a half-mile from the derailment site.
"In too many cases, your goodness and perseverance were met with indifference and betrayal," Trump said. He said the community needs "answers and results," not excuses. Trump took credit for incoming federal aid and said he had brought "Trump Water" for residents, along with water of "much lesser quality," Rolling Stone reports. After speaking, he went to the local McDonald's, where he handed out hats and bought food for the plane journey home.
The village of around 5,000 people is in a heavily Republican county, and there are plenty of pro-Trump or pro-Ron DeSantis signs and flags in the area, the AP notes. Trump described residents Monday as "abandoned," though the Biden administration says federal assistance has been offered and officials from agencies including the EPA were at the site within hours of the derailment. Residents, who have expressed concerns about possible exposure to toxic chemicals, have focused their criticism on federal officials instead of Republican leaders at the state and local levels, the New York Times reports.
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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has also been criticized for not touring the site, announced Wednesday that he would be there on Thursday. Buttigieg and other Trump critics pointed out that regulations on rail safety and hazardous chemicals were rolled back during the Republican's administration. 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," Politico reports. Former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a Republican, called the visit a stunt. "If he wants to visit, he's a citizen," LaHood said. "But clearly his regulations and the elimination of them, and no emphasis on safety, is going to be pointed out." (More East Palestine stories.)
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