Former President Donald Trump traveled to the site of the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, on Wednesday in an apparent effort to shore up support in a district where he is strong while also undercutting his chief political rival, President Joe Biden.
The trip is one of his first major out-of-state forays since announcing his 2024 presidential campaign in November 2022.
OHIO TRAIN DERAILMENT: BIDEN CHECKS IN ON EAST PALESTINE CLEANUP FROM POLAND
Trump won Columbiana County, where East Palestine is located, with more than 70% of the vote in the 2020 general election, yet he currently trails Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) in numerous head-to-head Republican primary polls, even though DeSantis has yet to announce his own 2024 candidacy. Trump consistently polls as the top Republican in polls assessing a crowded primary field.
Trump’s campaign confirmed to the Washington Examiner that the former president would donate thousands of bottles of water and cleaning supplies during Wednesday’s trip. The train derailment on Feb. 4 caused dozens of cars carrying the toxic gas vinyl chlorine into the surrounding area, potentially contaminating the local water supply and soil.
He was joined there by East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Rep. Bill Johnson (R-OH), state Rep. Monica Robb-Blasdel (R), state Sen. Michael Rulli (R), and additional local officials.
Some MAGA vendors have also reportedly traveled to the town in conjunction with Trump’s visit with plans to sell merchandise and donate the profits to the recovery effort.
Todd Gerhart, a Trump supporter from Charleston, S.C., drove here last night to sell his honey in downtown East Palestine today. He says 100% of the profits will go to community cleanup efforts. pic.twitter.com/fWmDUZJYd9
— Henry J. Gomez (@HenryJGomez) February 22, 2023
Trump and allies have used the accident to harshly criticize Biden’s and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg‘s handling of the cleanup and even took credit for certain federal aid sent to the region.
“Biden and FEMA said they would not be sending federal aid to East Palestine. As soon as I announced that I’m going, he announced a team will go. Hopefully he will also be there,” he wrote on Truth Social over the weekend. “This is good news because we got them to ‘move.’ The people of East Palestine need help. I’ll see you on Wednesday!”
The Biden administration has continually “failed” the community of East Palestine in its response efforts, while Trump’s trip will show that he “will never forget” the people within the community, an adviser to the former president added.
Trump has also attacked Biden for traveling to Ukraine and Poland in recent days to commemorate the first anniversary of the war in Ukraine instead of visiting East Palestine.
And while visiting with East Palestine residents, Trump delivered a direct message to Biden: “Get over here.”
I asked President Trump what his message to Joe Biden was.
His response: “Get over here.” pic.twitter.com/eX9pKargCq
— Savanah Hernandez (@sav_says_) February 22, 2023
In brief remarks, the former president again took credit for the Biden administration’s decision to send Federal Emergency Management Agency responders to the region.
“When I announced I was coming, they changed their tune,” he stated. “We opened up the dam and got them to move.”
Furthermore, he explained that “most of” the thousands of bottles of water were Trump-branded, sourced from his various hotels in recent days.
“Some of it we had to go to a much lesser quality water,” the Republican front-runner joked. “You want to get those Trump bottles I think more than anybody else.”
Several Biden officials, including Buttigieg and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, have publicly suggested that Trump’s efforts to roll back freight rail regulations could have contributed to the East Palestine derailment.
Allies echoed those claims on social media, honing in on Trump’s decision to rescind a Federal Railroad Administration rule issued during the Obama administration in 2015 that required so-called high-hazard flammable trains to update their brake systems.
However, numerous fact-checkers marked those posts as misleading. The braking rule would not have applied to the East Palestine train, as the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration excluded vinyl chlorine from its list of 70 components designating high-hazard flammable train status, even though Trump did take significant action to deregulate the industry, overturning numerous labor safety-oriented rules in the process.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement Wednesday that the Trump administration and congressional Republicans “owe East Palestine an apology for selling them out to rail industry lobbyists when they dismantled Obama-Biden rail safety protections as well as EPA powers to rapidly contain spills.”
“Congressional Republicans laid the groundwork for the Trump administration to tear up requirements for more effective train brakes, and last year most House Republicans wanted to defund our ability to protect drinking water,” Bates continued. “There is only one way they can prove that they are finally disowning their long history of giveaways to rail industry management at the expense of communities like East Palestine: Work across the aisle with us to put Obama-Biden protections back in place and go further, including with higher fines for rail pollution and properly equipping the EPA.”
To date, Biden has deployed Department of Health and Human Services, FEMA, and Environmental Protection Agency officials to East Palestine to perform health testing after controlled fires were extinguished on Feb. 6. EPA Administrator Michael Regan and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell have been the highest-ranking federal employees to spend time in the area. Regan and other EPA officials notably drank from the local water supply Tuesday in an effort to show it had not been contaminated by the spilled vinyl chlorine gas.
DRINKING EAST PALESTINE WATER: with EPA Administrator Michael Regan & Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (2/21) pic.twitter.com/8fnYYkKZgQ
— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) February 22, 2023
The Department of Transportation is leading an investigation into Norfolk Southern, the company running the derailed train, and the department said Wednesday afternoon that Buttigieg will now visit East Palestine the following day.
The EPA also announced Tuesday night that Norfolk Southern had agreed to cover the full cost of the cleanup and toxic material disposal.
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“This is common sense. This is their mess. They should clean it up,” the president said in a statement.
“For years, elected officials, including the last admin, have limited our ability to implement and strengthen rail safety measures. Heck, many of the elected officials pointing fingers right now want to dismantle the EPA — the agency that is making sure this cleanup happens,” Biden continued. “Rail companies have spent millions of dollars to oppose commonsense safety regulations. And it’s worked. This is more than a train derailment or a toxic waste spill — it’s years of opposition to safety measures coming home to roost. We’ll continue to hold rail companies accountable when they fail to put safety first. But first, we’ve got Norfolk Southern’s mess to clean. I want affected residents to know that we’ve got your back. And as I said to your govs, they’ll have every resource that they need.”
