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Trump to Florence victim: 'At least you got a nice boat out of the deal'

By Michael Burke - 09/19/18 04:42 PM EDT
 

President TrumpDonald TrumpBiden prepares to confront Putin Biden aims to bolster troubled Turkey ties in first Erdoğan meeting Senate investigation of insurrection falls short MORE told a victim of Hurricane Florence on Wednesday that the victim "got a nice boat out of the deal" in reference to a large yacht that had washed ashore during the storm. 

While touring an area in North Carolina hit by the storm, Trump asked a man if a boat that was shipwrecked behind his house belonged to him, according to a White House pool report.

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"At least you got a nice boat out of the deal," Trump said when the man replied that the boat wasn't his.

 
Trump added that he thought the boat was "incredible" and suggested that under the law it might now belong to the owners of the home. 
 
“They don’t know whose boat that is,” he said. “What’s the law? Maybe it becomes theirs.”
 
Trump made the comments while visiting New Bern, N.C, a town that was hit hard by Florence when it made landfall late last week. 
 
Trump earlier Wednesday told local officials and residents in the Carolinas that his administration will support recovery efforts "100 percent."
 
"We will be there 100 percent, and all of the folks from the federal government that are around the table, they're confirming it," he said during a briefing at the Marine Corps Air Station in Cherry Point, N.C. "That’s why we started early and we’ll be here late."
 
Trump visited New Bern in the early afternoon Wednesday before heading to South Carolina to visit parts of that state affected by the storm. 
 
More than 30 people have died from Florence, which has been downgraded to a tropical depression since making landfall. The storm caused lengthy power outages and severe flooding in parts of North Carolina and South Carolina after dumping significant rain on the two states. Florence has also impacted Virginia. 
Tags Donald Trump Hurricane Florence North Carolina