• Donald Trump frequented East Palestine, Ohio, on Wednesday, following a disastrous teach derailment.
• The 2024 Republican applicant donated pallets of Trump-branded water to people.
• Trump’s stop by raised thoughts about his administration’s rollback of rail safety restrictions.

Donald Trump brought his 2024 presidential marketing campaign to East Palestine, Ohio, on Wednesday, virtually three months following a cataclysmic educate derailment prompted an environmental catastrophe in the little city following the release of harmful substances.

The previous president’s stop by to the northeastern village preempted Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s arrival by one particular day, and Trump relished each individual possibility to castigate his Democratic successors, declaring Buttigieg “must have by now been right here,” and commanding President Joe Biden to “get above right here,” according to community reports.

When assuring East Palestine inhabitants that they experienced “not been forgotten,” Trump managed to tout his possess presence in the besieged neighborhood and brush off issues about his administration’s noted heritage of rolling again polices on both rail safety and dangerous chemical compounds.

Trump began his working day by briefly viewing with regional leaders, in accordance to WKBN-27, prior to conducting a little press convention at a fire station, where by, donning his signature “Make The usa Excellent Again” hat, he handed out a flurry of purple baseball caps to attendees. 

During his speech, Trump pledged to donate thousands of bottles of cleansing supplies, as properly as pallets of Trump-branded h2o bottles to associates of the neighborhood, several of whom have expressed continued problem more than the security of the town’s drinking water source next the derailment. 

“You wanna get individuals Trump bottles, I feel, much more than anyone else,” Trump mentioned, when flanked by point out and neighborhood leaders, which includes Republican Sen. JD Vance. 

—Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 22, 2023

The previous president dismissed concerns about his administration’s rollback of Obama-period rail security rules stating he “experienced nothing at all to do with it.”

The Trump administration slashed many environmental and rail restrictions even though in office environment, most notably rescinding a 2015 proposal to require a lot quicker brakes on trains that ended up carrying remarkably flammable or dangerous components. 

The Norfolk Southern Railroad Corporation freight educate associated in this month’s crash was carrying vinyl chloride, a colorless gasoline and recognized carcinogen, which created a plume of smoke in excess of East Palestine.

The Section of Transportation under Trump justified the rollback with a 2018 analysis arguing the cost of necessitating this kind of brakes would be “considerably higher” than the anticipated advantages of the update.

A spokesperson for Trump did not quickly answer to Insider’s request for remark. 

Subsequent his Wednesday information meeting, Trump visited a community Ohio McDonald’s where he handed out a lot more MAGA hats and purchased meals for firefighters.