President Donald Trump is facing waves of criticism on social media after he made a strange attempt to rebrand a hurricane during a speech in North Carolina on Tuesday.
“When you had the hurricane,” Trump said, referring to Hurricane Helene in 2024. “We call it a water cane. It was the most; there’s never been a hurricane that anybody’s seen that threw out more water than that.”
Trump attacked then-Gov. Roy Cooper (D) for doing a “horrible job” after the storm, claiming the state was “dying” as a result. Cooper is now the Democratic candidate for Senate, and Trump was in town to campaign for GOP candidates including Cooper’s rival, Michael Whatley, the former chair of the Republican National Committee.
“Very, very expensive and it doesn’t get the job done,” he said, complaining about the cost of the response to Helene.
Trump also said that state and local governments should “play a more active and significant role” in preparing for disasters rather than relying on federal dollars.
Critics on X tore into Trump for his latest hot take on these storms, specifically his claim that Helene was a “water cane,” which is not a thing: