Donald Trump Throws Paper Towels Into Crowd at a Church During One-Day Puerto Rico Visit

On Tuesday, the businessman-turned-reality star-turned-commander-in-chief got people talking when he threw rolls of paper towels in the crowd at the Calvary Chapel in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico

By Meg Swertlow Oct 03, 2017 8:26 PMTags
President Donald TrumpAP Photo/Evan Vucci

He shoots, but he definitely didn't score...

President Donald Trump proved once again that he certainly knows how to work up a crowd—and the Internet.

On Tuesday, the businessman-turned-reality star-turned-commander-in-chief got people talking when he shot rolls of paper towels into the crowd at the Calvary Chapel in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. The president was at the church to attend at an event for those impacted by the devastating Hurricane Maria that hit late last month.

Photographers and the crowd documented his unique way of giving out supplies during his visit one-day visit to the U.S. territory to survey hurricane damage.

Of course, the interaction has been tweeted and re-tweeted and written about. Many news outlets have called the interaction both "strange" and "weird."

He's certainly on a roll during this trip...

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Trump, who caused a commotion last week for criticizing San Juan mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, created further ire during a roundtable with federal and local official, an event that CNN has dubbed quite "awkward." In the discussion, Trump compared the Hurricane Maria death toll in Puerto Rico to the death toll of "a real catastrophe" like Hurricane Katrina.

"Every death is a horror but if you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina and you look at the tremendous—hundreds and hundreds of people that died—and you look at what happened here with, really, a storm that was just totally overpowering...no one has ever seen anything like this."

Trump then asked, Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, "What is your death count? 17?" Rosselló answered, "16."

Trump responded, "Sixteen people versus in the thousands. You can be very proud of all of your people and all of our people working together. Sixteen versus literally thousands of people. You can be very proud. Everybody watching can really be very proud of what's taken place in Puerto Rico."

Trump also incensed some others after he said to Puerto Rico's 3.5 million residents that helping out the island threw the U.S. federal budget "a little out of whack."

The 45th president sparked outrage online by saying, "I hate to tell you Puerto Rico, but you've thrown our budget a little out of whack. Because we've spent a lot of money on Puerto Rico and that's fine, we've saved a lot of lives."

Nearly two weeks after the storm hit the island, many residents are still struggling to get access to food and fuel.

Other celebrities that arrived in Puerto Rico to help include, Bethenny Frankel, Ricky MartinEmilio and Gloria EstefanJorge PosadaIvan RodriguezJose Andres and Telemundo's Rashel Diaz.