Hurricane Ida, which battered the Gulf Coast this weekend, was among the strongest hurricanes to ever hit the United States when it made landfall in Louisiana on the exact same day that Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans 16 years ago.
There's no denying that was an inherently newsworthy event--unless you're former Republican President Donald Trump, that is, who was outraged that news networks covered the hurricane "all night long" over the weekend.
Speaking to conservative radio host Todd Starnes, Trump ranted that the networks should have been covering Afghanistan instead--which they have been covering non-stop for weeks. See video of his comments below.
Trump rages at hurricane coverage youtu.be
In his comments, Trump claimed networks like MSNBC were only covering the hurricane to avoid talking about Afghanistan and having to give Trump credit for the "great agreement" he made with the Taliban.
"All they want to talk about is the hurricane or anything else that they can talk about because Afghanistan is not even something that can be discussed in a rational way."
"The level of stupidity — and we had a great agreement. In fact even Biden admitted the other day, he made a mistake because they didn't want him to say that but he said it, it's probably the only truthful thing he's said--that no people have been killed since this agreement..."
"We had no soldiers, no Americans were killed."
Several Americans and countless civilians have died in Afghanistan since the Taliban began taking over the country after Democratic President Joe Biden initiated the withdrawal agreement Trump negotiated during his term as president.
That agreement was brokered entirely with the Taliban directly, with no involvement from the Afghan government, and it has turned out disastrously by any rational measure.
Trump then claimed to have threatened the head of the Taliban with retaliation if any Americans were killed, but implied that Biden didn't have the courage to do the same. In reality, the military under Biden's command spent the weekend doing just that, performing drone strikes on ISIS targets following terrorist bombings at the Kabul airport that killed several American soldiers last week.
Trump next claimed that unlike Biden, the Taliban would have listened to him if he'd been reelected before going on to attack the media as the "fake and crooked and corrupt...enemy of the people" for covering Hurricane Ida.
"They've got to hate our country... the corrupt media shows the hurricane all night long."
On Twitter, Trump's bizarre rant drew nothing but eyerolls.
Trump is easily the bigger blowhard.https://www.rawstory.com/trump-furious-hurricane-ida-coverage/\u00a0\u2026— Tea Pain (@Tea Pain) 1630342597
He paid a lot of money for that hit job in Kabul. He wants his moneys worth of \u201cnegative coverage\u201d this is how he starts his return.— BanthaFodder (@BanthaFodder) 1630356251
The folks impacted by Ida already are largely his voters. Saying too much hurricane coverage won't change their allegiance. But, who negotiated the deal with the Taliban? He did. The handling of the exit is a legitimate issue to debate, but he also bears responsibility.— KathyB (@KathyB) 1630343253
Who? Why does he care about this one and not all of the other weather events. I think he's just pissed he couldn't sharpie the path to move it to New York or California....pic.twitter.com/jdHtjxHh0a— ImmortalEgg (@ImmortalEgg) 1630348434
Massive windbag complaints about massive wind coverage.....— Pinkmouse (@Pinkmouse) 1630343110
Poor Spanky! More unhinged than usual. He knows if he was still in the Oval he\u2019d have changed the course of Ida with a mere swipe of his Sharpie!\n#wtpBLUE\n#DemVoice1\n\nLISTEN: Donald Trump rages at cable news for covering Hurricane Ida 'all night long'https://www.rawstory.com/trump-furious-hurricane-ida-coverage/\u00a0\u2026— KB in the PNW-Resisting since 1964 (@KB in the PNW-Resisting since 1964) 1630352086
Maybe he's mad that no one asked him to do a Sharpie drawing of Ida's course. 'Cause that worked so well before.— Susan McBride (@Susan McBride) 1630343608
What he wanted them to go to him so he could show them that the storm was going to Alabama instead?— Jody Larose \ud83c\udf0a \ud83d\udc89\ud83d\udc89\ud83c\udf08\ud83c\udfc8\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf2 (@Jody Larose \ud83c\udf0a \ud83d\udc89\ud83d\udc89\ud83c\udf08\ud83c\udfc8\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf2) 1630343430
#HurricaneIda made landfall in one of the reddest states. Yet\n evincing no concern for possible loss of life, Trump was annoyed he didn't get to spin his revisionist history of his Taliban deal that effectively ended the legitimate govt of Afghanistan.https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-complained-media-spent-weekend-covering-hurricane-ida-2021-8\u00a0\u2026— Victoria Brownworth (@Victoria Brownworth) 1630400848
Poor #Trump. He needs more attention.https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-complained-media-spent-weekend-covering-hurricane-ida-2021-8\u00a0\u2026— Amber Lutz (@Amber Lutz) 1630413483
Trump's supporters have taken these ridiculous claims on step further: Many are claiming that the Afghanistan crisis is a "false flag" fakery to make Trump look bad and aid Democrats politically. Oh brother.
